Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and is a national day of philanthropic giving. To set the efforts of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) apart from other charities, we built a gingerbread version of our organization to demonstrate how the funds raised would help us build the capacity to answer more phone calls.

To drive interest for the entire day, we decided to live stream the project online. When a donor made a gift, we added an object (crafted by hotline advocates) to the winter scene. Each donor received a personalized email, showcasing their contribution to the gingerbread hotline so that they could share the project on social media. We also used a crowdsourcing fundraising site, Fundly, to empower our supporters to raise money in their own communities.

All told, the effort raised more than $35,000 in one day, and $100,000 over the course of December. These funds go toward supporting the hotline call center advocates who handle crisis calls each and every day, and without whom NDVH could not exist.