If you haven't already, go grab Funraise's free Giving Tuesday Toolkit. It has all the stuff you need to follow the steps below.

The best Giving Tuesday campaigns start with the end in mind

Because you’re a fundraising rockstar, you’ve got big Oprah-sized goals in mind for Giving Tuesday. Yeah, you do! That’s awesome because it’s the first step to prepare for a successful Giving Tuesday campaign—you need to know your goal.

If you haven’t set a Giving Tuesday goal yet, now is the time to do so. One of our favorite ways to set goals is to name good, better, and best goals. The good level is something that you know is very achievable based on past performance. The better level is achievable but may require some extra elbow grease, and the best level is something that would be your dancin’-round-the-office crazy good goal. (And guess what? Your best is alllways achievable.)

Create your Giving Tuesday game plan

Okay fundraising rockstar, you’ve set your goals and now its time to make your Giving Tuesday dreams a reality. You need a game plan! These are the strategies and tactics that will help you reach your goal. This will include things you’ll do on Giving Tuesday itself as well as any cultivation and stewardship you’ll roll out ahead of time to get donors ready to give.

You may want to start by doing a brain dump of #allthethings you need to do to make your Giving Tuesday campaign a success, then put together a calendar for important milestones and deadlines.

Need a calendar? Funraise's free Giving Tuesday Toolkit has it. Boom.

Start prepping donors like now

It’s fun to get swept up in the hype of events. You can create this experience for your donors and potential donors by starting to talk to them about Giving Tuesday now. That’s right, your only mention of Giving Tuesday should not be on, you guessed it, Giving Tuesday. Plan to start dropping hints and getting donors excited to give about 4 to 6 weeks in advance.

You could include a PS in an email, do a Facebook Live to announce what you’ll raise money for on Giving Tuesday, create fun social graphics, and more to engage your community.

In fact... there's all kind of copypastable content in Funraise's free Giving Tuesday Toolkit. Just sayin'.

Find your Willy Wonka (AKA a matching donor)

What’s one of the best ways to up the ante and the urgency on Giving Tuesday? Have a matching gift! It doesn’t have to be a ginormous gift to be an effective matching tool. Even offering a $1,000 match can motivate annual giving donors. Talk to major donors and corporate sponsors about being your matching gift donors.

Have a Plan B and Plan C because life happens

No plan is foolproof, including your Giving Tuesday plan. If you want to have a successful Giving Tuesday create a Plan B (and even a Plan C) for your campaign. For instance, at 12 PM on Giving Tuesday what could you (or your team) do to keep your fundraising on track? You may even want to think about back up plans in the weeks leading up to Giving Tuesday in case certain plans don’t manifest.

Remember: it’s not just one day

As you know, Giving Tuesday isn’t just one day of fundraising work. It’s a marathon! Many hours go into creating a successful campaign. And it’s equally important to remember that Giving Tuesday does not end at 11:59 pm. Nope. Because guess what? On Wednesday and Thursday, donor stewardship is your #1 priority. Surprise and delight your donors with heartfelt thank you notes and a phone call. Make their Giving Tuesday giving experience truly special by showing them that you heart their support.

Alright, fundraising friend, we know you’ve got the grit and gumption to rock this Giving Tuesday! Set your goal, create your game plan, and get ready to rock it. It’s the unofficial kick-off to year-end fundraising season so let’s get it started right this year by preparing for your best Giving Tuesday campaign ever.

And if you need more tips, tricks, ideas, or high fives, Funraise's free Giving Tuesday Toolkit is just a click away.