5 Ways #GivingTuesday Can Have a Gospel Impact in Your Community

GivingTuesday founders call the annual global giving day the Biggest Celebration of Generosity. Their stand on radical generosity sounds familiar to those who know the Gospel:

“While many call on philanthropists, policymakers and grantmakers to repair broken systems, GivingTuesday recognizes that we each can drive an enormous amount of positive change by rooting our everyday actions, decisions and behavior in radical generosity—the concept that the suffering of others should be as intolerable to us as our own suffering. Radical generosity invites people in to give what they can to create systemic change.”

GivingTuesday for Churches

GivingTuesday is on November 29 this year, positioned purposely, as always, as a much-needed bookend with Thanksgiving on the other side of two massive shopping days (Black Friday and Cyber Monday).

It’s unclear how many churches participate officially or unofficially in a GivingTuesday event. But some have and their stories can be found here. The page also provides links to existing faith-based coalitions you can collaborate with for GivingTuesday if you’re not ready or sure how to form your own.

Here are 5 ways to participate in GivingTuesday and introduce your church to your community:

1. Bring your congregation together to focus on a need in your community

Your members are familiar with GivingTuesday and may already have their own causes they plan to support. But bringing your body of believers together for a common cause strengthens your church. Outsiders looking for a church that is doing something in the community may well want to join in. So set a fundraising goal, promote the cause and invite your members to enlist their networks to help meet that goal.

Remember that GivingTuesday goals and donations don’t have to be money…Volunteering counts! Organ donation commitments have even been included.

2. Unite various faith-based or nonprofit institutions in your neighborhood

Consider inviting other orgs in your community to come together under your roof to participate in jointly fundraising for a cause the community is concerned about, such as a community of homeless kids living in a tent city under a nearby underpass. (The school district may be able to help you with something like this.)

As an example, at the height of the pandemic, one of our clients joined with Hope for the City, a Las Vegas coalition of organizations that work together to feed the hungry, to host a live-streamed fundraising concert. Donations were transacted through the church’s dedicated fund page, giving all donors a chance to be introduced to the church at a time when hope was low. Read the story and see the media-rich giving page here.

Or you could choose one nonprofit and throw your church’s weight behind its cause. The impact here goes far beyond funds raised. First, unity in a community is always powerful. Second, your members are introduced to resources they may need to know about one day. Third, the other organization’s supporters are introduced to your church and encouraged by your work in an area they care about.

(By the way, Vision2 has the ability to keep track of funds donated to various organizations in the same giving event.)

3. Fundraise for a specific ministry in your church

We plan to dive into this more in depth next year in plenty of time for you to set up an official GivingTuesday goal, but just to get you thinking on it…

Here’s how it could work. Let’s say you want to elevate your kids’ programs:

• • Calculate the total annual cost of facilities, utilities, staff, supplies and events (trunk or treat, VBS, summer camp and retreats–including scholarships, summer snow cone nights, parents’ nights out, and so on.) Include the cost of background checks for volunteers.

• • Promote the IMPACT (number of children served, how many were baptized, uplifting stories of individual growth or achievement) your program has had. Use video to demonstrate this impact. If you’re a Vision2 user, be sure to create a GiveStory tile for this campaign in your gallery of giving funds.

• • Highlight a story or two of a member and or community family whose lives were changed by your children’s program.

• • Announce that the GivingTuesday goal is to fully fund the program for the following year.

• • Boost your efforts with a matching donor. Data shows that declaring a matching donor increases giving by 19% and the likelihood that an individual gives by 22%. (Source)

• Create a webpage (landing page) to corral all your details, including your GIVE button.

If all of that feels too big, simply announce that you’re raising funds for scholarships for any of your children’s events that cost the family a fee. (Again, consider a matching gift by promoting the idea to a generous donor in your church who is likely to give anyway.)

4. Organize a food or clothing drive to benefit a local organization, such as a school or a local food pantry.

Positioning your drive around GivingTuesday provides urgency and legitimacy.

5. Adopt families to provide them with holiday gifts and needed items

GivingTuesday is a great opportunity to enlist participants in your Angel Tree or other holiday benevolence efforts.

How Vision2 Can Help

Even if you don’t go all in officially for GivingTuesday, you can still take advantage of this day when the world is thinking benevolently. By participating in GivingTuesday, you can funnel that generosity to a specific cause aligned with Kingdom purposes … and gain a little goodwill from those who one day may look for a church that is having an impact in the community and world.

Vision2 is a giving solution with a difference. Check out our unique media-rich giving experience that inspires givers and connects them more deeply to your church. It’s great all year round, but particularly useful for campaigns like GivingTuesday.