Giving Tuesday is a global day for giving back. It was created by the 92nd Street Y and United Nations Fund in 2012, with the goal of starting a movement around charitable giving at the beginning of the holiday season, and it always takes place the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving. As the only national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of pets in America's shelters, Best Friends Animal Society wanted to capitalize on this tremendous day of giving and show supporters how they could make an impact. The goal was to make 2015 Giving Tuesday an engaging and meaningful all-day event across all digital channels, encouraging new and old supporters to join this movement and make a gift to the animals.
The main goal of the campaign was to generate $250,000 in online donations on Giving Tuesday, with additional goals of increasing engagement and reach on social media through consistent posts throughout the day.
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary created a unique experience for their supporters utilizing both the live streaming app Periscope (a relatively new tool, and one we hadn't seen used in fundraising before) and pre-recorded videos throughout the day on Giving Tuesday. Through shared messages and stories from around Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, as well as the pet adoption centers in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, Best Friends founders and caregivers, showed the impact of donations every hour throughout the day.
To best showcase the messages and create a different donation experience, Best Friends Animal Society hosted five separate Periscope live streams on Giving Tuesday. The variety of hosts shared stories of homeless pets helped by donations, gave updates along the way, said thank you to specific donors and encouraged supporters to participate in the tremendous day of giving. The Periscope videos were then shared across social media channels — including Facebook and Twitter — to help maximize exposure. In addition to the live streams, interstitial videos featuring adorable adoptable animals were shared various times throughout the day to remind people about the day of giving and encourage them to give back.
The live streams and social post posts throughout the day reached more than 1.5 million people, with 2.6 million total impressions. More importantly, the goal of $250,000 in funds raised on Giving Tuesday was exceeded, resulting in one of the single biggest revenue days ever for Best Friends.
