The University of Nottingham's Giving Day journey: from pandemic to prosperity

Paul Geddes and Rob Burman on why Nottingham started running Giving Days in the depths of the pandemic, why they nearly didn't, and what four years of doing them has taught them.

Nottingham ran their first Giving Day in 2022, having spent the previous two years deciding whether to. Telethon was drying up as a source of new donors, leadership wanted to shift the dial digitally, and the pandemic had pushed everything else online. Four Giving Days later, Paul Geddes and Rob Burman walk through what happened.

This webinar will be useful for anyone considering a first Giving Day, or wondering whether to keep running them:

• The case for starting, and the four reasons they nearly did not: cost, an appeal calendar that already worked, compliance complexity, and the risk of failing in public
• Going live at zero and building the total in the open, rather than banking large gifts first, and what each approach costs you
• Writing a reason for support that carries through every piece of comms, and working a theme into it
• Using nostalgia and an anniversary without forcing it
• What happens after the day: stewarding first-time donors so they come back, and the drop-off between a donor’s first Giving Day and their second
• The parts that surprised them, from student and academic involvement to the power of a pre-set £1,000 ask