With Halloween just around the corner, you know what scares me?

Not having a plan for GivingTuesday.  Show me ghosts, vampires, monsters, and devils! But not planning for one of the best days of the year? Count. Me. Out.  

I take planning seriously – for everything, including Halloween. And this year, I was working on GivingTuesday while working on Halloween, so I thought maybe this would be a fun way to talk about planning!

As we discussed in the Fundraising for GivingTuesday webinar with CanadaHelps when you think about what outcome you would like for your organization by the end of GivingTuesday, you need to map out how to get there.

I use the R.A.C.E formula that I was taught while studying Public Relations. There are variations on this and you can read about them all here.

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Research (R)

‍A few months beforehand, I start thinking about what I want to do for Halloween (and GivingTuesday!) making a list of priorities:

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Action (A)

‍Once you know the priorities/goals that you have, here comes the creative and fun part: your action plan/tactics! What are you going to do to help you realize the goal that you have for Halloween or GivingTuesday? Imagine this, but on a whiteboard in my kitchen. No joke.

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Communication (C)

‍C isn’t just for Cookies. You’ve made your plans, now it’s time to communicate them!

Working within your budget, there are so many ways you can communicate yourGivingTuesday plans to reach your goal:

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Evaluation (E)

‍When all is said and done, and both the adrenaline and sugar rush have worn down, it’s time to look over the plans to think about what worked to help prepare for next year. Of course, much like in our work lives, at home I need to evaluate if I stayed in budget and if people had fun on Halloween. I even track the number of kids, what ages they are and our budget per kid. And it helps me to have this information when it comes time to buy treats the following year.

Your evaluation of GivingTuesday could look like:

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Remember to do the evaluation and save it to be part of your research for next year.

We are here to help! Head over to givingtuesday.ca and you will find all kinds of tools and resources.

Happy Halloween!

Sarah Lyon

Community Engagement Lead

GivingTuesday Canada

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