Welcome to Giving Hearts Day!
From all of us at Dakota Medical Foundation, Impact Foundation, and the Alex Stern Family Foundation, hello and welcome to Giving Hearts Day!
The reason giving days have become so popular across the country is that they work. You have a story to tell, donors who want to give, and people who want to support you in raising greater support for your cause. And giving days bring all those things together in a single place. They’re also a tremendous new-donor-acquisition tool. Built into Giving Hearts Day are three ideal fundraising conditions:
1. Urgency: There’s a deadline to participate. Urgency is further amplified if there’s a matching gift that requires donors to meet a giving goal on the day.
2. Convenience: GHD provides a fast, accessible opportunity for donors to give via a simple, user-friendly online giving platform. It also allows you to make gifts to multiple charities at once.
3. Awareness: The amount of attention generated by GHD via the hundreds of regional charities far surpasses anything that even the most successful nonprofit could hope for working alone. GHD is essentially a giant fundraising event with a guest list in the tens of thousands.
These conditions make GHD a perfect chance to improve what you already do well and maybe even experiment with something new, whether you’ve been wanting to recruit volunteers to help with an event or want to try out some different marketing tools.
And because a Giving Hearts Day campaign is also shorter than your typical fundraising campaign, there tends to be less risk if something isn’t working the way you were hoping. You’ll find yourself building on these experiments year over year and using many of the lessons learned during GHD in your larger fundraising system and approach.
To get the most out of GHD, you’ll need a well-lit path. And that’s where this field manual can help. If you’re just starting out, use it to help you build a solid foundation. If you’re on more solid ground, we hope it will inspire some new ideas as you experiment in the GHD sandbox.
Let’s dive in!
-The Giving Hearts Day team
A Note from the Executive Director
Dream Boldly This Giving Hearts Day
When you stand at the entrance to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, it’s hard to believe it was once just a wheat field. And if not for the visionary courage and foresight of Will and Charlie Mayo — the clinic’s namesakes — it may have remained that way.
It was the Mayo brothers who, in 1912, launched a massive and, at the time, revolutionary project: a single clinic that would house doctors of all specialties. It would afford rural and urban citizens alike a convenient, one-stop option to have all their medical needs taken care of in a single location. The bold dream didn’t stop there, though.
The Mayo brothers had a much bigger plan for their facility. They anticipated such significant expansion that, when it came time to secure the raw materials for construction, they purchased many times the amount of stone necessary to complete the structure. They were so confident in their eventual success that they wanted the excess stone, which would be used for expansion, to weather at the same rate as the original.
The Mayos were driven primarily by a singular motive: to ease the suffering of their fellow man. True servant leaders, they realized the best way to do that was to create a destination medical facility, despite massive financial and personal risk.
Imagine if this Giving Hearts Day all of us dreamed as big and as boldly as the Mayo brothers. Imagine if those bold dreams were supported by thoughtful and detailed fundraising strategies that were brilliantly delivered. Imagine if all 600 GHD nonprofits possessed a burning desire to serve their community at the level of Will and Charlie. That’s the kind of giving day the entire region would get behind.
We know that you and your organization have the power to do that, but first you must believe it yourselves. Let’s change the world together!
J. Patrick Traynor Executive Director Dakota Medical Foundation, Impact Foundation
Master Checklist
Signing up for Giving Hearts Day means signing up for a predetermined timeline of activities. Understanding this will be especially helpful in staying on top of any administrative tasks you’ll need to complete as you plan your larger fundraising campaign.
We’ll be using a few different channels to communicate with you, but all essential information and announcements will be sent via email. You can expect regular announcements and reminders about upcoming deadlines, training and networking opportunities, and challenges and contests, as well as a healthy dose of tips and resources for building a great campaign.
You’ve probably heard before that failing to plan is planning to fail. We’ve seen firsthand over the years how true this is with Giving Hearts Day. The charities that attract the most donors and raise the most dollars year in and year out don’t do so by accident. They create and execute thoughtful, meticulous campaigns that leave very little to chance.
That’s why our team has done some of that work for you and identified the activities we believe will set you up for a successful Giving Hearts Day. We’ve broken those activities up into two sections, and they’re laid out here for your convenience:
Required Checklist
Review the welcome email if you haven’t already.
If you’re a new charity, set up a Stripe account.
Due Wednesday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. in the “Subscription & Stripe” tab in charity admin portal
If you’re a returning charity, make sure you can log in to your Stripe account.
Create your online profile page (if a new charity), or update your charity’s online profile page (if a returning charity).
Due Wednesday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m., in the “Charity Information” tab in charity admin portal
Attend a GHD Kickoff training:
Thursday, Sept. 12 (Fargo + Zoom)
Wednesday, Sept. 18 (Minot)
Thursday, Sept. 19 (Bismarck)
Thursday, Sept. 26 (Grand Forks)
Watch the GHD Kickoff recording if you did not attend in person.
Available Wednesday, Oct. 2, in the “Resources” tab in charity admin portal
Report your $3,000 match (minimum).
Due Monday, Jan. 27, in the “GHD Match” tab in charity admin portal
Review the “Important Information for GHD” email that you will receive the week of Giving Hearts Day.
Review the donation-receipt guidelines to ensure you have properly receipted all donors who need a tax receipt from your organization.
Watch the donation-reconciliation video.
Available Friday, Feb. 7 in the “Resources” tab in charity admin portal
Continue to read post-GHD emails for important information regarding the distribution of funds.
Recommended Checklist
Whether you’ve participated in Giving Hearts from the beginning or it’s your first year, we’d encourage you to review the recommended checklist below, as well as the accompanying material in the rest of the manual. Don’t put yourself in a box just because you don’t have a dedicated fundraising team or you’re new to GHD. Every organization has the potential to be extraordinary, and the first step is believing you can. Let us help you get there!
Bold = more information available
Attend a new-charity orientation session (If a new charity).
Watch the new-charity orientation recording if you did not attend a new-charity orientation session in person.
Review your GHD 2024 performance. (p. 7)
Set your GHD 2025 fundraising goals. (p. 8)
Attend or view the October GHD Learning Series.
Thursday, Oct. 10
Assemble your GHD campaign team. (p. 15)
Attend or view the November GHD Learning Series.
Thursday, Nov. 14
Decide on a campaign theme. (p. 16)
Guided by your campaign theme, decide which fundraising tools you will use, and track them regularly. (p. 20)
Let your network know when GHD gift cards are available.
Available November
Develop a business-engagement strategy. (p. 22)
Order GHD t-shirts.
Available Nov. 1, or pre-order now
Order GHD snowbank signs.
Available January
Attend or view the December GHD Learning Series. Thursday, Dec. 12
Check in with your team. (p. 23)
Attend or view the January GHD Learning Series.
Thursday, Jan. 9
Let your network know when early giving begins.
Begins Monday, Jan. 13
Finalize your day-of GHD plan. (p. 23)
Review the donation-receipt guidelines.
Start entering check donations received during early giving. Monday, Feb. 3
Remind your network that it’s Giving Hearts Day. Thursday, Feb. 13
Thank, report, inspire, invite. (p. 25)
Don’t forget to clean up after the party. (p. 26)
Debrief with your staff and campaign team. (p. 26)
Continue to review post-GHD emails for important information regarding distribution of funds.
Attend the March GHD Learning Series.
Thursday, March 13
How to Have a Successful Giving Hearts Day Campaign
*Corresponds to “Recommended Checklist” on p. 6
Review your GHD 2024 performance.
Before you look ahead to Giving Hearts Day 2025, you should have at least a basic understanding of how your Giving Hearts Day 2024 campaign went.* Reflect on what went well last year, what you could have done differently, and what it’s going to take to supercharge this year’s campaign.
*If you’re a first-year charity, you won’t fill out this section, but take note of what you should be tracking for next year.
On GHD 2024:
The total dollar amount we raised was: $ .
The total number of donors supporting our charity was:
The number of major gifts of $1,000 or more we received was: .
Our total match was $ .
Discussion
Does anything jump out to you as being particularly noteworthy?
Compared to your previous GHD campaigns, was 2024 better? Worse? Why?
Overall, how satisfied are you with how your campaign performed?
If you had a do-over(s) in last year’s campaign, what would you have done differently?
If you were to double the amount you raised last year, you would need to:
Instructions: Rank-order from 1-5, with 1 being the most important.
Get your board members more involved
Increase the size of your fundraising team
Increase your marketing and awareness efforts
Engage more volunteers
Start laying the groundwork for your GHD campaign earlier in the year
Receive new major gifts
Increase your number of new donors
Ensure that all of your supporters know about the impact you’re making
Retain more of your existing donors
Refine your mission and vision
Improve your website
Host an event that educates and inspires potential major donors
Other:
Set your GHD 2025 fundraising goals.
There are three levels of goals that charities set on Giving Hearts Day: “good,” “better,” and “best.”
1. Good: A “good” goal is a budget-driven goal, which is more conservative in nature and something you can pretty confidently know you’ll hit.
2. Better: A “better” goal is a stretch goal, which you can think of as a rubber band being stretched:
• Too loose and it’s not effective. There’s minimal motivation for your team, and there’s low incentive for your donors.
• Too big and it snaps. It doesn’t actually help you develop a cycle of progress.
3. Best: Then there’s a “best” goal. You can think of this one as a moon shot. What does that mean exactly? It means that, if you were going to truly move the needle on your cause, what would it take? If you were really going to make a dent, what would you need?
This Giving Hearts Day, we’d encourage you to get way outside your comfort zone and opt into that third bucket. Let’s dare to be great together.
Before we actually get into setting our GHD 2025 goals, we recommend splitting your donors up into three buckets:
1. New donors (Recruit)
2. Repeat donors (Retain)
3. Major donors (Reach)
You can’t expect your donors to build a pathway to you, so your role is to design and continually improve giving pathways for them. The better you are at creating a clear path for a new gift, showing appreciation for repeat gifts, and thoughtfully preparing what it looks like to receive a major gift, the more successful you’re going to be.
Hopefully this framework not only gives you a clean mental model for thinking about your donor list but also helps you maximize your fundraising tools, which we’ll touch on later.
First, let’s set your overall goals for GHD 2025.
Total dollars: $
Total donors:
Recruit New Donors
If you’re new to Giving Hearts Day (or fundraising in general), the first thing you’re going to want to do is create a new-donor ask.
As you develop your new-donor ask, it’s important to remember that you’re not simply asking someone to support a cause. You’re extending an offer. You’re not asking and convincing — as fundraising is typically viewed — but rather providing an opportunity and connecting in a mutual exchange to make an impact. To think of it another way, you’re putting a donor’s values into action. Taking this approach, as opposed to a transactional one, helps solidify in the donor’s mind that what they give matters and that a relationship with your organization is about meaning and not just money.
We’ll get into the seven fundraising tools later in the manual, but for now, you should know that the most common ways to make a new-gift ask are:
• TV
• Radio
• Print (magazines, newspapers)
• Social media
• Newsletters
• Direct mail/appeal letters
Here are a couple examples of new-gift asks from Giving Hearts Day charities:
Shiloh Christian School
• Website
Education matters. What children learn and see modeled will influence them throughout their life. $40 educates one child for a day, $200 educates one child for a week, and $800 educates one child for an entire month.
YWCA of Cass-Clay
When you give to the YWCA, you help families build brighter futures. Your generosity provides safety and support and empowers women in our community. $23 provides shampoo, toothpaste, and a full bag of essential care items. $66 provides a night of safe shelter, food, and caring support. $132 provides three nights of care, resources, and most of all, hope. $308 provides a week of shelter and safety.
Now, it’s your turn. Put together your own new-gift ask, or, if you already have one, see if there’s anything worth updating or improving.
NEW-DONOR GOALS FOR GHD 2025
Examples: social media campaign, host an event, TV/radio
New-donor goal: donors
Dollar goal for new-donor gifts: $
We will secure:
new gifts under $100 equaling new gifts from $100-$250 equaling new gifts from $251-$500 equaling new gifts from $501-$1,000 equaling new gifts greater than $1,000 equaling
% of total dollars that will come from new-donor gifts: %
% of total donors that will be new donors: %
Retain Your Donors
When you think of your repeat-donor pathway, put yourself in the shoes of someone who’s already given. How, exactly, do you want them to feel? Answering this question is what will take you from transactional to relational fundraising — the kind that endures over time and generates dependable support for your mission.
The unfortunate reality of fundraising is that about half of new donors don’t end up making a second gift.
We think a big part of that is because they aren’t being thanked well. In fact, you can often directly tie the size and frequency of gifts from a donor to how well you thank them.
In a recent case study that our GHD team conducted, a major donor gave to 30 different organizations on Giving Hearts Day, and only about half of the organizations thanked the individual personally. If you were this donor, which organizations do you think you’d be giving to next year?
Remember: It’s our job, not the donor’s, to give them a reason to come back. You can’t expect them to do that on their own. And that’s why you need to create an intentional system to regularly thank your donors. It’s ideal to thank every donor within 72 hours of a gift (at the absolute maximum), with 24 hours serving as the gold standard.
There are endless ways you can customize communications and experiences for your existing donors, but for the purposes of this field manual, we think it’s best — especially for newer charities — to become exceptional at showing gratitude. Whether it’s your first GHD or you’ve been with us from the beginning, one of the most important things you should have in place before the day is a solid thanking strategy.
The most common ways to thank and make a repeat-gift ask are:
• In person
• Phone
REPEAT-DONOR GOALS FOR GHD 2025
• Newsletter
• Direct mail/appeal letter
Repeat-donor goal: donors
Dollar goal for repeat-donor gifts: $
We will secure:
repeat gifts under $100 equaling repeat gifts from $100-$250 equaling repeat gifts from $251-$500 equaling repeat gifts from $501-$1,000 equaling repeat gifts greater than $1,000 equaling
% of total dollars that will come from repeat-donor gifts: % % of total donors that will be repeat donors: %
NEXT STEPS TO REACH YOUR REPEAT-DONOR GOAL
Examples: thank you cards, charity tour, and impact report
Reach for Major Donors
Now, let’s get into one of the most powerful tools in fundraising: a match, which is typically made up mostly of major gifts.
In one fundraising survey, it was found that four out of five donors said they were more likely to give if a match was offered. Additionally, one-third of donors said they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation.
A match is highly motivating because it not only makes a donor’s gift go further; it also sends a clear signal that others believe in the cause. No one wants to be the only donor, and every donor wants to see a good use of their dollars. A match helps both.
A matching gift can come from one of several sources, with a few being the most common:
• Individual
• Businesses
• Donor-advised funds (DAFs)
• Grantmaking foundations
To get started with your match gift asks, we recommend creating a potential major-donor list. And unless you’re a startup, you shouldn’t be starting from scratch.
Start with your existing donor records. Run a report of all donors’ cumulative giving over the past 36 months, and focus on your top 20 percent of givers. If you don’t have this capability, build a list of donors who have given $1,000 or more in any of the past three years.
Next, you’re going to create a basic major-gift chart, which contains a range of gift options for a match donor to support you, as well as your overall major gift goal for GHD 2025:
MAJOR GIFTS NEEDED FOR GHD 2025
Now, it’s your turn:
Once you’ve put together your major-gift range chart, it’s a good time to have your GHD campaign team review the list and have them provide any additional referrals (more on your campaign team in the next section).
Your major-gift chart will be valuable not just for GHD but for your overall major-donor pathway and ongoing fundraising strategy. It’s something you can deploy year-round in other short-term campaigns or when you need to raise major gifts.
With your potential donor list prepared, it’s time to actually start reaching out and making asks. Here are a few tips for approaching a major donor:
1. Send an email ahead of time. In the message, let the donor know that you’re reaching out to them and other supporters to invite them to really make an impact this year. As a courtesy, send them a message before calling. Give them multiple options to connect.
2. If you get their voicemail or end up leaving a message, no problem. Let them know when and how you plan to follow up again, as well as your contact info.
3. Always keep in mind that your organization has something valuable to offer and that the mission can speak for itself. You’re a voice for it.
Whether you line up a call, connect in person, or make a presentation to a group, you can’t go wrong with the three A’s approach:
1. Appreciate the donor.
2. Align the donor with your mission.
3. Ask the donor to make an impact with you and others.
All it takes is five contacts a day for 30 days, and you’ll have the odds in your favor to raise a very successful match for Giving Hearts Day.
Alright, now, let’s put pen to paper and actually set our major-donor goals for Giving Hearts Day 2025.
MAJOR-DONOR GOALS FOR GHD 2025
Major-donor goal: donors
Dollar goal for major-donor gifts: $
We will secure:
major gifts from $1,000 - $1,999 equaling
major gifts from $2,000 - $2,999 equaling
major gifts from $3,000 - $3,999 equaling
major gifts from $4,000 - $4,999 equaling
major gifts from $5,000+ equaling
% of total dollars that will come from major-donor gifts: %
% of total donors that will be major donors: %
If your total dollar goal would be an increase of 25% or more, what will you do differently to achieve that increase?
What will you do if some of your key stakeholders have an issue with the goals you’re putting forth?
What are the steps you need to take to get your dollar and/or engagement goals finalized, accepted, and communicated so that you can begin to move forward? (e.g., board or committee approval)
Assemble your GHD campaign team.
Fundraising operations come in all shapes and sizes. Some nonprofits have a dedicated, full-time development team. Others? They’re a one-person band, meeting with donors when they can squeeze it in. If your organization falls on the latter end of that spectrum, assembling a team for your GHD campaign is definitely worth your time.
Campaign teams are great for a lot of things, particularly at filling in gaps in expertise, relationships, and time. Whether it’s sharing social media content, planning events, or actually making gift asks, the members of your campaign team can really help lighten the load for your organization and ensure you have a successful Giving Hearts Day.
It’s worth mentioning that, if you have any trepidation about asking people for help or see it as a sign of weakness, it’s quite the opposite. It’s a sign that your organization understands its weaknesses and knows how to address them. And almost everyone is flattered to even be asked. As long as your campaign team understands they’re making a temporary commitment and you give them clear expectations, it’s hard to go wrong.
A campaign team is also a meaningful way to involve your board.
It’s probably the best opportunity you’ll have all year to help your board members get a ground-level look at your mission. And in addition to the fundraising success that you’ll have with additional talents and skills supporting you, you’ll also grow in your relationships with one another.
Who you actually put on your GHD campaign team is everything. Getting the right people in the right seats — as well as getting the chemistry right — can make or break the success of your campaign.
When assembling your campaign team, think about whether there are any retired individuals in your network who might be a good addition. They likely have more time to give than a working professional, they tend to be a wealth of knowledge, and they might be looking for purpose and meaning in service of a cause like yours. It could be a real win-win.
While not exhaustive, here’s a list of some “superpowers” you’ll want to have on your campaign team:
Rainmakers: team members who raise large amounts of donations and dollars effortlessly
Powerbrokers: team members who have large personal and professional networks that they are able to access and activate in powerful ways
Promoters: team members who have the desire, ability, and access to platforms to get the word out through writing, marketing, and advertising
Planners: team members who have the ability to create powerful and effective plans
Presiders: team members who have the ability to lead meetings in a way that engages all the group’s members
Energizers: team members who exude positivity and electricity
Administrators: team members who are terrific at handling the daily details and are adept at keeping everything and everyone on track
Looking at your current fundraising team (or individual), which of these superpower(s) do you have already?
Name
Superpower(s) Which superpower(s) is your team lacking?
Who are some prospects who could potentially fill the superpower(s) you’re missing?
Name
Superpower(s)
Decide on a campaign theme.
You’ll never get a $10 million gift without a $10 million dream.
Put another way: If you’re always just nibbling around the edges, it’s going to be very difficult to convince major donors to get behind your mission.
Something you have to understand about human beings is that we’re wired for survival. It’s human nature. We think in terms of protection from harm, as opposed to the possibility of success. That’s why we can get stuck in the mode of budgets, payroll, and the day-to-day grind instead of long-term, large-scale impact.
If you have a fear about coming up short of a big goal, fundraising coach Erv Inniger has a message for you:
“What I’ve learned working with charities over the years is that they don’t stretch their goals far enough. They’re more interested in reaching their goal than they are trying to attain what might be out there for them.
“Donors don’t want to hear that you raised $48,000 last year and this year you want to go for $50,000. They give more money because of your mission. Because you’re helping real people. So even if you set a big goal and don’t reach it, you’re still helping more people. And that resonates with them. When you set your goals, you have to give the donor a reason why you want to meet that goal and show them how they can play a part.”
Developing a clear theme for your campaign will allow you to more cohesively broadcast the central focus of our mission (or a specific element of it), whether in marketing, at an event, or when interacting with media. Your theme will serve as a throughline for most everything you do.
There are two things we recommend that every organization do as they come up with their campaign theme:
1. Craft your XYZ statement.
We’ve all been there. Someone asks what your charity does, and you launch into a ramble, starting a sentence and not really knowing where it’s going to end up:
“We’re a counseling center started in 1972. We provide professional services in 12 areas of community need that lead … “ — any more and we might all need a pillow.
You can’t bore people into giving, so the challenge lies in: How can you get to the essence of what you do … in a concise way … when you have multiple programs.
Many of the charities we’ve worked with over the years have found great success in using something called an XYZ statement. It’s a simple way to share what your mission does in as little as one sentence.
The exercise is inspired by serial entrepreneur Stephen Blank, who uses it to help entrepreneurs pitch investors.
Here’s the format:
We help X to Y so that they can Z.
The X, Y, and Z are all blanks for you to fill in.
We help (who or what you are helping) to (programming you wish to focus your GHD campaign on) to (impact of the work).
GHD Charity Examples
New Life Center
We help the homeless (X) with food, shelter, and job training (Y) so that they can become the best version of themselves (Z).
Hospice of the Red River Valley
We provide patients and families (X) with comfort and care (Y) to live well through life’s journey (Z).
2. Write a story of one life changed.
Did you know the average person is bombarded with between 6,000-10,000 ads every day? On top of that, the average adult makes about 35,000 decisions daily. That’s … a lot.
So how do you begin to pierce through all this noise and connect with others who want to share in the work of your mission?
It turns out there’s a proven method: Tell them the story of one life changed. That’s right. All you have to do is tell donors about a single person.
A list of programs is just too intangible and doesn’t pull at the heartstrings. We’re wired to connect through stories, especially those with challenge and triumph — the kind you probably see every day at your organization.
If you start with a story, only then is someone open to hearing about the rest of the work. But for whatever reason, we often get this equation backward by starting with our programs and history first. Telling a single memorable story is the best way for us to stand out in a noisy world.
There’s a good saying to remember: “Stories stick and facts fade.”
Don’t overthink it. You don’t need to be a great writer to be an effective storyteller. Just write the way you would talk, like you were telling an old friend over drinks.
Let’s look at a few examples from other GHD charities:
West River Health Services Foundation*
• GHD charity since 2019
• 2024 GHD Medium budget category winner
*As seen in the Bowman County Pioneer When someone recounts their experience of being involved in a catastrophic highway accident, their demeanor isn’t normally easygoing. Their attitude isn’t normally casual or cheerful, and the overall outcome from such an ordeal isn’t normally positive.
Duane Pierce is not normal. He knows this. Because normally no one would have walked away from the wreck he was in. And whether there was a factor of a higher power looking over him or simply dumb luck, Pierce knows one thing for sure: Things would have been a lot different had it not been for the souls of our local medical team. An ordinary day at West River Health Services made for an extraordinary impact for Mr. Pierce. And he wants you to know about it.
It’s been six weeks since the collision. Six weeks since his semi careened into a ditch off the highway. Six weeks since his leg was lodged in a steering console. It’s been six weeks and Duane Pierce is at home, walking, talking and joking on his 83rd birthday with his wife. And what better way to celebrate another year of living than to recount a moment in time when everything could have ended?
Other than working for the National Guard out of Fort Leonard Wood many moons ago, Pierce has been busy farming his neck of the woods with his family for as long as he can remember.
“Well, you don’t want to do that for fun,” laughed Pierce as he began to recall the day of the accident. March 6 was a busy one as Peirce was running six trucks of wheat out to United Grain, west of Hettinger, with the help of his employees and two sons, Rob and Shawn. Pierce recollected how nonchalant everything was in this normal operation.
“I got there and I unloaded. Shawn was right behind me,” said Pierce. “I went around, got my ticket, and I headed back to the farm to get another load.”
Gloomy, breezy, and chilly, North Dakota winter weather was still in full effect on this side of the country. Bitter wind was in the air, and frigid snow was on the ground as Pierce began traversing the highway in his empty semi, focused on getting back to the farm to load more wheat.
“You know how accidents happen,” said Pierce. “All at once… this snowplow was right in front of me and I just cranked the wheel to the left and I hit that thing really, really hard.”
The plow was in the process of blading snow off the shoulder of the highway when the collision occurred, demolishing the truck with Pierce inside who remained conscious the entire time.
“Theron Schalesky was driving the plow, and I thank God he was going the same way I was and that we didn’t crash headon,” said Pierce.
After striking the plow, the passenger side of the cab was obliterated, and the truck was sent flying into the ditch with the trailer in tow. After finally coming to a rest, he radioed for his son, Shawn.
“Shawn had already caught up with me and was almost right where it happened,” explained Pierce. “I told him I had a wreck, and he said, ‘Are you okay?’ and I said, ‘I’m okay!’”
Still in shock, he quickly learned that he was pinned, as his leg had become lodged in the truck’s console. Before working on his encumbered leg, Pierce turned off the engine, which was still miraculously idling. Once he got himself unstuck, he was able to open the door and crawl his way outside. As soon as his legs hit the dirt, his son Shawn and his employee, Kyle, were right there to assist.
“They grabbed ahold of me and put my arms around their neck, and we went down through the ditch where the snow was still three feet deep,” Pierce recounted.
Although Pierce had escaped the truck, he and his rescuers quickly found themselves in an entirely new predicament.
“Shawn told me we had to keep going, that we had to get out of here. I looked up and we noticed that the sleeper on the truck was totally loose. I remember Shawn saying that it might fall over and that if it did, it was going to get us,” said Pierce.
Evading the potential danger that loomed over them, Pierce was dragged to safety where he awaited the arrival of an ambulance, which according to him, wasn’t very long at all.
“I just can’t say enough good about the quality of the people and how everything worked when that ambulance got there,” Pierce remarked. “I was in that ambulance in a very short time. And I was immediately on my way to the emergency room. They got me in there as fast as anybody could have possibly done.”
The West River Ambulance crew quickly got to work, preparing him for his arrival at the West River Health Services just a few short miles away in Hettinger, where Dr. Josh Ranum and a host of nurses were waiting.
“Everybody knew exactly what they were doing,” said Pierce. “Right there, they assessed me, took a bunch of x-rays, and immediately came back with my results. Doctor Ranum told me that I had a bad(ly) broken hip, and in a very short amount of time, I was loaded back in the ambulance, and I was put on an airplane … it was the fastest trip to Bismarck, that I can tell you! From there, I had my surgery
and stayed in Bismarck for a few days. Afterwards, I got to come back to West River Health Services in Hettinger, and it was the same wonderful experience all over again. Everything was just so precise!”
Enamored with the quality, quick pace, professionalism, and attentiveness of the medical staff he witnessed while in the care of West River Health Services, Pierce feels it is important for more people to know about it.
“The people of the community should realize, that just because we’re in Hettinger or in a remote part of the state, we can get any place they want to and get us the care we need in a very short time,” Pierce said. “The rooms were just so nice and clean. Nice, bright rooms. And when it came to treatment and service, you just don’t realize what kind of team we have. Every nurse that came into my room was an absolute angel. They just don’t get any better. It didn’t make a difference if it was midnight or noon, they took care of me!”
Pierce continued to sing the praises of the facility and its staff, and particularly expressed his gratitude for the doctors that met with him, so much so that any notions of feeling pain, discomfort, or any negative connotations that come with being involved in horrendous accident seemed to be a total afterthought when compared to the services rendered at West River Health Services.
When asked if he felt as though he was in good hands from the moment the ambulance arrived, he was quick to agree, “I knew from the very, very beginning that I was going to get the best care I could possibly get. Everything was superior to any care I’ve ever had!”
Following his surgery and appointments in Bismarck, Pierce was able to see what was left of his truck since the accident. For the first time he was able to really absorb the magnitude of the situation and (gain) even more appreciation for the care he was given.
“Looking at the wreckage, I thought there could never be a chance for anybody to have survived,” said Pierce as he took a deep breath. “There was nothing left, and I’m very fortunate to be alive.”
He attributes his survival to being in the right place at the right time, citing his placement in the cab during the crash; the assistance of his employees, family, and friends; and most certainly the services of our local hospital, which he expressed is far superior to any other facility he’s been to. His newly found appreciation for West River Health Services is something he wants to extend to everyone, hoping they see this blessing without having to undergo such a horrendous experience to find it. In his words, West River Health Services is something of a secret if you don’t know.
“We have a secret here in southwest North Dakota,” said Pierce. “And people don’t utilize it as much as they should. I don’t believe you could go anyplace else and have better service than what I had at West River Health Services.”
Soul Solutions Recovery Center
• GHD charity since 2019
“Emotionally broken” is how Jackie describes her youth. Feeling depressed and alone, Jackie attempted suicide by age 11. To cope with the pain of loneliness, Jackie turned to drugs — first using marijuana, and then progressing to alcohol.
Jackie knew these behaviors were destructive. She tried to quit as she turned 18 and sought out different methods of “fitting in” in the world. Upon turning 18, Jackie became a confirmed and baptized Mormon, thinking it would fill the void of isolation. A sense of belonging failed to form, addiction took over, and Jackie continued on a vicious cycle of substance abuse and destructive behaviors.
At 19, Jackie checked into her first treatment center. What followed was a series of more than 10 different attempts at various treatments, all resulting in relapse, hopelessness, and further isolation.
The tipping point for Jackie was having her children taken away by Child Protective Services, her daughter taken from their home, and her son taken upon birth at the hospital and placed with a foster family. Little did she know, a woman named Patti was about to change everything.
“I was living in darkness,” said Jackie, “Soul Solutions came up coincidentally. Peer support suggested it, and Patti called me within 45 minutes of submitting my form.”
Soul Solutions Recovery Center offers substance use disorder treatment and recovery services to help people learn to live sober for long-term recovery success.
Jackie was a no-show for her first appointment at Soul Solutions, but this time, things at treatment were different.
“They wouldn’t give up on me,” says Jackie, “They were persistent about saving my life. Somebody wanting to save my life was something I needed to hear. And that’s what they did: They saved my life.”
Soul Solutions gave Jackie a sense of home and belonging she’s craved ever since she was a little girl.
“You don’t feel like you’re just another number (there),” she said, “You feel heard. You feel wanted. You feel like you belong in the world.”
When asked what made Soul Solutions successful compared to her other experiences with treatment, Jackie says, “They soul solutions
really prepare you for when you’re done with treatment and they get to the root behind why people use.”
She describes the staff as angels: “They are thorough, trustworthy, empathetic, and passionate about helping people without (passing) judgment. You can’t really explain it. It’s mystical.”
Jackie remained strong throughout her time at Soul Solutions, as her husband simultaneously struggled to overcome his own personal battle with addiction. Over time, he joined Jackie on her Soul Solutions journey, and together, they found a clean life.
“My quality of life is amazing,” said Jackie, “I never thought we’d be financially stable or that our family would be so strong.”
Both Jackie and her husband are fully employed, and their two children returned home to them, now trusted to be in their care.
Jackie recently achieved one year of sobriety. The foster parents who looked after her children attended the celebration.
“They’re a part of our family now, too,” Jackie says. “I want my kids to know it’s okay to not be perfect. It’s okay to mess up. I just want them to know they’re never alone.”
As we visited with Jackie, she was cuddling the newest member of her family, a precious 9-day-old newborn baby, Violet. When asked how she found the strength to share her story with us so early into her maternity leave she smiled through tearful eyes and replied, “Anything for Soul Solutions. They saved my life. It’s all part of the miracle. I want that to be known: This place helps people have miracles. Patti is a miracle.”
After you’ve crafted your XYZ statement and written a story of one life changed, you should have a pretty good sense of your campaign theme. If you’re still not entirely sure, use these three questions to get the creative juices flowing:
1. What’s your organization’s most pressing need(s) that can be named or grouped?
2. What’s one thing you wish everyone knew about your organization?
We recommend just going with your gut here. Most charity leaders have a response in the moment when asked this question. One good example would be Haley’s Hope, a GHD charity that helps individuals with dyslexia.
When asked a few years ago what’s one thing she wishes everyone knew about dyslexia, Haley’s Hope Executive Director Kari Bucholz’s response is short and to the point: “1 in 5 people have it.” With that simple answer, their campaign revealed itself: Bring awareness to the fact that 1 in 5 people have dyslexia.
3. What’s an event or partnership you could base your theme around?
Consider a partnership with a business, faith community, or multiple nonprofits. This can be a great way to raise awareness for both the cause and issues being addressed and can help you identify a central theme that will bring the various groups together.
Once you have your theme, your creativity and project planning can really come to life.
Without a theme, it’s common for charities to spin their wheels. As soon as a good theme is crafted, though, you have a filter you can use to make all subsequent decisions.
Your theme is your launch pad.
Come up with three campaign ideas here:
1. 2. 3.
Guided by your campaign theme, decide which fundraising tools you will use.
Fundraising, like all professions, has a set of basic tools that are used by nearly all practitioners. And when you know which tools you have in your toolbox, it can go a long way toward simplifying and maximizing your results over time. While there are undoubtedly more, we’ve narrowed the number of fundraising tools down to seven.
Here we’ll take a brief look at the strengths of each tool and give you a few tips to keep in mind as you develop a marketing plan to support your GHD 2025 fundraising campaign.
Tool #1: Email
99% of email users check their inbox at least daily, and some check it as much as 20 times per day. Email is the most ubiquitous of the fundraising tools and one of the best for staying in regular touch with your donors.
Tip: Send your emails from a real person, not your organization.
Tip: Open rates improve dramatically when you use a compelling subject line, e.g., “Susan, you won’t believe what happened yesterday!”
Tip: Avoid templating your emails as much as possible. Give it the look and feel of something a donor would get from a good friend.
Tool #2: Direct Mail
In a fast-paced world of digital overload, direct mail has become a highly effective way to grab a donor’s attention.
Tip: Make your direct mail piece skimmable, and write it at a sixth-grade level — no fluff or big words.
Tip: Write to the donor, and make them the hero. Replace the word “we” with “you” as often as possible.
Tip: Make sure the executive director or development director’s personal signature appears at the end of any appeal.
Tool #3: Social Media
Social media is a great low-cost way to keep donors and volunteers regularly updated about the goings-on at your organization. It’s also a highly efficient way to introduce new supporters to your mission and drive donors directly to you on the day of GHD.
Tip: Don’t post according to daily quotas; post according to the seasons of your organization. Frequency should increase when you have things going on and decrease when you don’t.
Tip: Avoid overplanning your content. Authenticity and spontaneity can be real assets in the highly curated world of social media.
Tip: Video content consistently performs better than any other kind of content across social platforms.
Tool #4: Websites
Just like your social media channels, your website — especially your home page — should reflect the most important thing going on in your organization at a given moment.
In the case of GHD, it can be something as simple as just making sure to include the Giving Hearts Day logo with a date. It will help keep it top of mind for people and remind them that you’re one of the great causes they can give to on the day.
Tip: Make sure you have a “donate” button highly visible on any page someone might navigate to on your site.
Tip: Everything on your site should be findable in three clicks or fewer.
Tip: Use pop-ups sparingly. While they are a great way to grab a donor’s attention about timely information, if they’re clunky or too intrusive, they’ll turn people off.
Tool #5: Personal Calls
There are a lot of organizations out there now that have learned how to do great content — whether in social, emails, or on other promotional materials — and yet many of those same organizations tend to overlook the most important and personal communication device of all: a good old-fashioned personal call.
We already know what you’re thinking: Who has time in a day to sit down and crank out dozens of phone calls to donors? We’d ask if you can afford not to do it. We have only one tip for this tool — more of a habit really:
Tip: Make a list of all donors who have given to your organization in the past three years, and organize their cumulative giving totals in order from largest to smallest. Then, narrow your focus by pulling a list of your top 20 percent of donors. Using the list you created, personally (and religiously) reach out to at least five per day, Monday-Friday. If you’re able to maintain this pace for just three months, you’ll have made 225 connections.
Tool #6: Events
If you’ve ever helped plan and execute an event, you know the considerable time and resources it takes. But there’s a reason that 80 percent of charities host them: They’re effective.
If hosting a Giving Hearts Day event feels like too much, we’d ask you to consider how well it could pair with the larger day. It not only helps you focus your communications around the day, but it gives your donors a way to experience your mission through the energy of the day. Plus it lets your team get some extra face time with them.
Tip: Name and brand your event in a way that amplifies the link between participation and your mission, e.g., TNT Kids Fitness’ “In Their Shoes” event showcasing the potential of movement and making it more available to people of all abilities.
Tip: The single best piece of advice we can give you is to start your event on time. Then, get immediately into a short (two minutes or less), compelling video about someone receiving and/or responsible for what your mission makes possible.
Tip: Even though giving days typically revolve around online giving, when in person, open up the option for checks and to take mobile payments on site. And don’t forget to leave out plenty of cards with QR codes that link directly to your GHD campaign.
Tool #7: Earned Media
Earned media is media coverage that you don’t pay for. And while you might not think of earned media as a “tool,” it’s arguably the most effective tool in your toolbox when done right. The reason for that is twofold:
1. Legacy media (TV, radio, print) still reaches a significant amount of people and, in particular, a demographic that is predisposed to give to charity.
2. There’s something especially powerful about somebody else finding you worthy of coverage and saying nice things about you. You can run the greatest paid media campaign in the world, but it ultimately always has an asterisk next to it because people know that you’re saying nice things about yourself.
Tip: Pitch a story about a real person, not an event. This is where having your signature story ready to go at all times can be helpful. You never know when you’ll need it.
Tip: Connect local stories to national issues.
Tip: Request remotes. Many local radio and TV stations regularly host live broadcasts on-location as a way of helping to promote special community events or causes.
Develop a business-engagement strategy.
Businesses make for great Giving Hearts Day fundraising and volunteer partners because they offer one of the best opportunities for a one-to-many ask.
If you’re thinking, “But businesses get asked by everyone,” we’d recommend — just like with donors — not making up their mind for them. Always take a shot.
You’ll want to source your connections, like your board and people you already do business with. There are so many businesses that would love to partner, but they need to be given the opportunity.
The first question for many of you will be: Where do I find these companies?
Here are a few places we’d suggest you start:
1. Vendors you work with
2. Businesses already connected to your mission
3. Businesses connected to your board members
4. Banks in your region
5. Large employers in your region
6. Businesses that you know are community supporters
There are really three options you can propose to a business:
Sponsorships
If you have the time and ability, we recommend customizing your levels to reflect both your mission and the business’ level of investment, e.g., platinum, gold, silver, bronze.
Something to remember for when you’re asked about a sponsorship opportunity unexpectedly (trust us: this will happen), have some default amounts at the ready — $1,000, $2,500, or $5,000 are always good starting points. Then ask for a sponsorship of that level or greater to help make your campaign a success.
Match Gifts
Making a significant match gift is a great way for a business to not just be mentioned many times throughout Giving Hearts Day (“Give a gift of $10 or more on GHD, and Bobcat will provide a match up to $10,000.”) but also in the weeks or months leading up to the day itself.
Employee Giving
This is a great way to take advantage of the custom matching links offered through the Giving Hearts Day platform. It’s great for creating a give-back culture and developing a more civic-minded team. This is also a great introduction to charities as you explore causes to get more involved with year-round.
Something to keep in mind is that while businesses want to make a meaningful impact with their contribution, it’s also an investment for them. Many of the gifts that come from a business to a charity come from their marketing budget.
When it comes to framing up an offer for a company to support your GHD campaign, you’ll want to frame it in terms of marketing benefits. Here are some things to put together for your offer:
• Total number of combined followers on your social media channels
• Total number of subscribers on your email list
• Total number of recipients on your mailing list
• Total number of average monthly website visitors
• Total number of attendees last year at your GHD event (if you had one)
Another thing to consider is if you can put a sign in front of your building thanking them for their generosity or highlighting their sponsorship. If this is a possibility, you could even call the city and get an estimate of the number of cars that drive by on your road for exposure.
Just like an individual donor, a business’ contribution to your organization reflects their value system in action. It’s the many individuals who make up an organization saying, “Our values align with yours.”
Check in with your team.
If you’re reading this, you know firsthand that being a world-class fundraiser requires you to give a lot of yourself to the work. It demands personal involvement, focused attention, and an enormous amount of energy. And unfortunately, in most charities, there just aren’t a lot of
spare resources to make sure everyone’s glass is full and that they’re always at the top of their game.
That’s why, in the weeks and months leading up to Giving Hearts Day, we’d recommend scheduling regular checkins with every member of your campaign team to express appreciation and keep their spirits high.
Whether you’re an executive director, a development director, or just a caring teammate, we’ve come up with a list of 10 questions to help you get the conversation started and assess how everyone’s feeling:
1. What’s bringing you joy and filling you with gratitude right now?
2. What are the most and least satisfying parts of your current day-to-day work responsibilities?
3. How would the lives of the people you’re helping be different if you weren’t doing what you do?
4. In what specific areas do you want to be your professional best?
5. What are the non-negotiables you need to be doing every day to keep yourself healthy and performing at the top of your game?
6. What could help you take your game to the next level?
7. What are one or two steps you could be taking right now that would get you moving in the right direction?
8. How will you know if you’re burning out?
9. What steps will you take if you find yourself struggling?
10. When all is said and done, what would you most want people to say about you with respect to the work you’re doing for your charity?
Finalize your day-of GHD plan.
Your day-of tasks are really no different than what you’ve been doing throughout your campaign: using your tools of fundraising to cultivate relationships with your current and soon-to-be supporters.
This, by the way, is where you can really set yourself apart on Giving Hearts Day.
Many tend to run toward creating a Geico-level marketing campaign, but you have something better than car insurance: You have an important mission and purpose. You don’t need to be something other than yourself, and this day is the time for you to shine a light on how you make your community a better place.
At this point, you’ve followed a thoughtful, bold campaign blueprint, and you’ve done everything you can to set your organization up for success on the day. All your planning and preparation has led you to this. Here’s a final checklist to help you run through the finish line on Feb. 13:
1. Get familiar with the GHD platform before the day. We can all but guarantee that you’ll receive more than a few calls from donors with questions about how to find your charity and make their donation.
You’ll make you and your teammates’ lives A LOT easier if all of you are familiar with the GHD platform and you don’t have to troubleshoot alongside them in real time.
Also, be familiar with how the GHD platform integrates with your accounting software and think through who needs access.
2. Remind people that today is GHD. Then, remind them again. And finally, remind them one more time. People are busy, and Giving Hearts Day is 24 hours. Even when it seems like promotions are happening all around you, don’t feel bad about graciously reminding them multiple times.
3. Activate staff.
Giving Hearts Day is truly an all-hands-on-deck kind of event. Be sure that everyone knows their roles, responsibilities, and schedule with the utmost clarity. Even if some of your staff isn’t needed for executing the day, they can still be included in the promotion and celebration of the day. Ask them to post on social media and invite friends and family to give.
4. Create a team schedule.
This will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and that you’re prepared for whatever the day brings. Also, if you create a schedule (and a backup plan) for all that you need to accomplish during the day, it will give you a better understanding of the amount of manpower you’ll need to harness to reach your goals.
5. Prepare your volunteers.
If you’re a team of one, you don’t have to do it alone. Ask volunteers, board members, and your campaign team to be a part of the event alongside
you. They can help with thank yous, share social media updates, and give testimonials. Remember to be clear with your expectations, train them as much as needed, be grateful, and educate them just like you would a new staff member.
6. Know your administrative tasks.
Do you have data entries to make? Checks to enter? A match to maximize? Also, be sure you know how to contact the GHD team if you need support.
7. Know how to pull your donor information.
If you have a team of people helping you thank donors, it’s important to be able to efficiently pull that data for them.
8. Figure out how you plan to update donors on your progress.
People are rooting for you and want to see you reach your ambitious goal. Social media updates or incorporating progress toward your goal via thank-you calls can make a real difference in keeping the momentum going.
9. Remember to slow down
Take breaks and allow yourself some moments to recharge your body, mind, and spirit. You’ve worked so hard leading up to this day, but it isn’t quite over. Consider asking a local business to sponsor a meal, or lean on volunteers to bring in healthy snacks and coffee/tea.
10. Have fun and celebrate.
Celebrate your wins no matter what they are. Did you try a new marketing tactic? Make more asks than you ever have for major gifts? Did you get more individual donors than you did last year? No matter the outcome of the day, make sure your team feels appreciated and give yourselves a collective pat on the back for whatever it is you accomplished.
Thank, report, inspire, invite.
Thank (within 24 hours after GHD)
The first and most important rule of thanking is that you do it within 24 hours post-GHD. If that seems daunting, there a couple different things we’ve seen work well:
1. Instead of waiting for the clock to strike midnight, start writing your thank yous ahead of time, and make your calls throughout the day.
2. Enlist volunteers — including board members — to lend a hand and thank donors on your behalf.
3. To make sure you’re not using generic language, start by customizing the receipt message your donors will get when they give on GivingHeartsDay.org. You can find that in the charity admin portal.
4. Pre-write handwritten thank you notes, leaving only the name and details left to fill in on day-of.
5. Establish a call bank on GHD to thank people in real time. Remember you can always split this up with a team of volunteers (including your board members). You could even create a short-term committee focused solely on thanking.
Report (48-72 hours after GHD)
This is where you go a little deeper with what you were able to accomplish on Giving Hearts Day. There are two ways to do this:
1. Send an update to everyone on your list via email and social media.
2. Extend a personal call, text, or email with a message of gratitude to each donor.
Inspire (2-4 weeks after GHD)
The question to ask yourself here is, “What’s the next signature story to send?” and then break it down by what goes out to everyone and what goes out to your VIP list.
Invite (6-12 weeks after GHD):
You might be worried about asking too many times and not wanting to create donor fatigue, but if you’re thoughtful in your communication, donor fatigue will rarely be an issue — even when you’re asking up to six times a year, which is our recommendation.
8 Ways to Use Your Fundraising Tools on Day-Of
1. Plan your emails out in advance every hour, and leave room to add real-time photos and stories.
2. Direct mail isn’t used by many organizations on day-of, but one thing that can be helpful is printing reminder postcards and dropping them off at strategic spots throughout your community.
3. Social media is one of the best tools on day-of. For organic social, share real-time updates of what your team is doing, as well as donor testimonials. Short video updates tend to perform well, and you can easily go live or just upload a quick update from your phone.
4. A great way to personalize an invite is to message friends and supporters inside of social platforms, e.g., Facebook Messenger. Creating and then cutting and pasting individualized messages with a link directly to your GHD profile is an extremely effective way to reach your donors — especially those age 40 and above.
5. For paid social, we recommend adding your list of donor emails into Facebook/Instagram and showing these people a reminder ad to give on the day-of.
6. Don’t forget to add a banner or pop-up to your website on the day-of with a reminder message like “It’s Giving Hearts Day!” and a link to your GHD profile.
7. If you’re using a text-based service, you’ll want to plan out at least four key messages for the day — three inspirational texts with an invitation to give in the morning, afternoon, and evening, followed by a mass thank you text at the end of the day.
8. We cannot overstate the value of this over everything else you do on the day-of and the day after: Thank people well. In this day and age, it’s such an advantage to be an organization that makes personal calls. If you can possibly call everyone using volunteers and your board, do it!
Don’t forget to clean up after the party.
Now that your Giving Hearts Day is over and you’ve taken some time to grab some R & R, it can be tempting to turn off the GHD part of your brain.
While you’re executing on your thank you campaign, though, remember to take some time to do a few clean-up tasks to make the most of your donor data and set yourself up for your next campaign, whatever it might be.
First, you’re going to want to evaluate how your campaign performed against your goals. In addition to your overall dollar amount raised and the number of donors who gave to your mission, you’ll want to evaluate how your campaign performed against the goals you set last fall.
Specifically, you’ll want to measure how you performed in the three buckets you grouped your donors into: new, repeat, and major. You’ll also want to review the performance of your seven fundraising tools.
Next, understand how your giving day donations will be received by your organization and make sure the right people have all the information they need.
Loop in anyone from your accounting department or any volunteers who may be helping keep these records. Share our GHD donation reconciliation video with these people so they understand how to make sense of all the numbers and the ways donations will reach your organization through Giving Hearts Day. Since these people aren’t always a part of building your GHD campaign, please ensure that they are included in any necessary post-event updates and announcements. Make sure they have access to any donor records and GHD’s payment-processing platform, Stripe.
Finally, make sure you’re using your donor data and understanding how your data can help you.
If you’re a newer charity, this is a great time to explore your options for a customer relationship management (CRM) system to track and manage your donors. Knowing and understanding your donor base is key to long-term success, and hopefully participating in Giving Hearts Day has boosted your new-donor numbers. This is the perfect time to move these donors into a system for getting regular updates and touchpoints.
Debrief with your staff and campaign team.
Talk through what went well, what you’d do again, and what should be re-evaluated for GHD 2025. It’s very helpful to go into these sessions with some of your data points ready to share so that you can make recommendations based on facts, as opposed to only subjective feedback. When people have put their heart and soul into a campaign or taken a risk that possibly didn’t pan out, these conversations can be difficult.
Remind your team that every campaign comes with its fair share of ups and downs, but the most important thing is that you took the opportunity to share your mission with the community and you’ll go into your next GHD campaign with valuable lessons learned. Document all of your steps, feedback sessions, and calendars so that you’re not starting from scratch next time.
Now you’re ready to wrap up your Giving Hearts Day 2025 campaign, with up-to-date internal records and ready to report your results to your donors, staff, and board members.
You’ve cultivated relationships with donors, thanked everyone well, and reported on how gifts are putting donors’ values into action. You’re also well-positioned to incorporate the strategies you’ve learned into your fundraising efforts throughout the rest of the year.
Gratitude isn’t something you should only be doing in the weeks before and after GHD. The most successful organizations express sincere appreciation year-round.
About Giving Hearts Day
As part of an ideation program at Dakota Medical Foundation (DMF), Giving Hearts Day (GHD) arose in 2008 as a simple but unique fundraising concept: On Valentine’s Day, ask people to show affection not only to people they love but to charities they love, too. In the 17 years since, the event has gone on to become one of the longest-running and most successful giving days in the country, providing a platform for North Dakota and northwest Minnesota nonprofits to raise dollars, recruit volunteers, and receive goods.
It’s an opportunity for communities to feed the hungry, nurture the elderly, and educate tomorrow’s leaders. But it’s not just a day. Using skills and best practices taught by DMF and Impact Foundation, charities build capabilities that they put to use on both GHD and in their other fundraising efforts throughout the rest of the year.
About Impact Foundation
As the training arm of GHD, Impact Foundation helps participating charities and leaders grow through training, education, coaching, resources, and networking opportunities. Impact’s ultimate goal is to help individuals and organizations unlock their unlimited potential to serve.
Impact Foundation is based in Fargo and was formed in 2004 in response to a need for North Dakota and northwest Minnesota charities to better grow their ability to impact health and quality of life in the region. Along with DMF and the Alex Stern Family Foundation, Impact also serves as a co-host of Giving Hearts Day, which is the longest-running giving day in the United States. Since its inception in 2008, GHD has served as a platform for charities to raise more than $195 million.*
*As of Giving Hearts Day 2024
About the Giving Hearts Day Field Manual
The GHD Field Manual is your one-stop shop for all things Giving Hearts Day — every event, to-do, and important date you’ll need to know about can be found within these pages. It’s more, though. It’s also your guide for executing a successful GHD campaign with your team, as you learn to recruit new donors, retain existing donors, and reach for major gifts.
It will walk you through everything you’ll need to do before GHD, the day of GHD, and after GHD to get the most out of your campaign. We know that no matter where you are on your Giving Hearts Day journey — whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or you’re brand new this year — you’ll be able to find something valuable in this manual.
The Impact Approach
Bold dreams
Brilliant delivery
Burning desire to serve X
Extraordinary impact
This simple formula, which we call the “Impact Approach,” guides everything we do at Impact Foundation. We think that if you adopt it in your own organization, it will become jet fuel for taking your charity to a whole new level.
You’ll reach previously unattainable heights, and you’ll do so faster, smarter, and with a more complete perspective about why you do the important work that you do. In a world of endless distractions and demands on your time and energy, the Impact Approach anchors and illuminates what’s truly important.
Bold Dreams
The overarching pursuit of any organization should be to dream big dreams, the kind of dreams that create excitement, illuminate possibilities, and ignite the promise of a better tomorrow.
Brilliant Delivery
Once those dreams have been captured in a plan, the desire of the organization should be to then make good on those bold dreams and ideas to deliver brilliantly.
Burning Desire to Serve
If bold dreams are the destination and brilliant delivery is the engine, a burning desire to serve is the fuel that ignites and propels an organization to exponentially grow its impact over time. And that brings us to the outcome of the Impact Approach: extraordinary impact.
Extraordinary Impact
Most organizations are not even aware that they have the power to be exceptional. By not making a choice, they have defaulted to being average at best, which is a tragedy of opportunity lost. The stakes in this case couldn’t be higher: lives saved, animals rescued, and diseases cured.
