Celebrate #NationalPhilanthropyDay and Optimize Nonprofit Fundraising Opportunities

There are many tools and resources available to assist with nonprofit fundraising and supporter engagement that will help drive donations and increase awareness. Many organizations designate a special day or month as a hallmark of their cause and will create fundraising campaigns around them leading to the big day (or month). Other initiatives are on a more global or national scale, much like the #GivingTuesday fundraising initiative I recently wrote about. One other important day that nonprofits must be aware of is National Philanthropy Day conceived by Douglas Freeman back in 1986 and celebrated on November 15th in both the US and Canada.

AFP (The Association of Fundraising Professionals) are leading the charge and getting behind National Philanthropy Day and turning what was once simply a proclamation into action to produce tangible results. Ultimately, National Philanthropy Day is “The day we celebrate philanthropy: giving, volunteering, and everything you do to help change the world!” This national event is an excellent platform to celebrate everything that is philanthropy and a great way to engage supporters and endear them further to your cause. If you are not able to join in on any of the official celebrations held across Canada and the US, there are other ways you can participate and have an impact that will garner the desired results:

Click image to go to website

• Share – Inspirational stories are at the heart of your cause. Sharing moving stories about your supporters with your community through various communication channels (i.e. newsletter, email, social media, website, blog) will incite action amongst other members of your community. Also, encourage those same supporters and volunteers to share their personal inspirational cause-related stories in an accessible forum and  through the National Philanthropy Day website on that day as well.
• Ideas –As philanthropy by definition is “the love of humankind”, to be a philanthropist is not someone who simply makes cash donations. A philanthropist shows love in many ways from the donation of tangibles such as food and clothing, to the donation of intangibles like volunteering time or making small changes in your actions or life that will produce results that will benefit someone else. It always starts with an idea. Communicate to your supporters ideas on how else they can help your cause as they may have never considered it as an option. The National Philanthropy Day website has 31 ideas that could serve as a starting point – suggest those that best fit your organization’s mission.
• Creativity – Being creative will grab your community’s attention and you can integrate your efforts with National Philanthropy Day’s by having team members and volunteers participating in their Instagram and Twitter #”Where in The World is N-D-P?” campaign using the #ndplove hashtag. Perhaps this is also a great way to share stories and ideas. The main objective is to get your community of supporters thinking and talking about what being a philanthropist means to them and other ways they can be one year round.

National Philanthropy Day should be a special day for all nonprofits to recognize their biggest asset, their supporters. This day can also be a precursor to #GivingTuesday and complement other end-of-year fundraising activities strengthening overall results and potentially expanding your reach.

“Change the world with a giving heart”, National Philanthropy Day motto

How do you define philanthropy and what makes you a philanthropist? Share your comments below.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.