⚠️ The Wiki is getting some updates. Pardon the dust! ⚠️

Big Give Days

Big Give Days are a donor incentive offered by Give!Guide on specific dates. Donors on those dates are entered to win a prize (see the dates and prizes below) from us. The drawing is held the morning after and winners are announced on social media, then posted on our public-facing BGD page.

The more you promote BGDs, the more donations you'll get. It's no exaggeration when we say they're powerful, game-changing dates. Over the past few years, more than half of all the Give!Guide donations were on BGDs.

The BGD Rules

Donate $10+ on a Big Give Day and get entered to win a big prize from Give!Guide. Each donation is a chance to win and there's no limit. The odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received.

👍 Nonprofit staff and volunteers are eligible. So are WW staff.
👎 G!G staff are not eligible, alack and alas.

Flooding the BGD with entries is allowed. We want people to make a ton of donations!

Make a dozen $10 donations, you're entered 12 times. This could be done during 1 transaction (a dozen different nonprofits in the cart at once) or during a dozen different tranactions (one nonprofit at a time... and yes, it could be the same nonprofit).
Make one $120 donation, you're entered once. There is no splitting this into a dozen entries.

Selecting & Announcing Winners

The winner is selected by a random drawing conducted at G!G HQ before lunch the following day. The process is incredibly easy. We use a random number generator and set the range to match the number of donations from the BGD. The randomly selected number is then matched to the corresponding line in the BGD's donation spreadsheet. That donation is the winner. Ta-dah!

The winner and the associated nonprofit (the one connected to the winning donation) are notified via email immediately after the drawing. It's a pretty fun email thread. 🥳

Announcements are made after the winner has been notified. The winners are identifed by "First L." and we also mention the donation and associated nonprofit. Announcements are posted on our social media channels and added to the specific BGD page.

- EXAMPLE: "Angie F. donated $50 to Baby Blues Connection."

Sweepstakes Laws & Tax Deductibility

As a reminder, Willamette Week is not a nonprofit — and Give!Guide is a program of WW. That means G!G follows a different set of Oregon Department of Justice laws around raffles than a nonprofit would. We are in compliance with raffle and giveaway rules that apply to our business type. Also, because the prize comes from G!G, there's no tax deductibility issues for the associated nonprofits when it comes time to issuing tax receipts and fair value, etc.

- If you're unfamiliar with DOJ's charitable gaming laws for nonprofits, you better bone up on it. There's info about this in the Wiki's Prep / Incentives section.

Expectations for Nonprofits

It's in your best interest to promote as many BGDs as you can because they generate a ton of money. Half of it, in fact.

When you skip BGDs, you're effectively saying, "nah... I'm not here to raise money." And if that's the case, please do all of us a favor and withdraw from G!G — let one of the hundreds of orgs on the waitlist have the opportunity!

That said, not every BGD is going to be a good fit for your organization. We ask that you exercise your best judgement. Some prizes conflict with missions or your regular programming and you may need to reconsider your BGD plans. Here's how to handle those situations.

EXAMPLE #1: The prize is a wine country getaway and your org is focused on sobriety. We suggest counterprogramming with your own incentive that day. "Today's BGD is all about wine and we're skipping it. Instead, Our Organization is offering an alternative prize! Donate to us today and get a cool coffee cup from our pals at A Coffee Company."

EXAMPLE #2: The BGD is the same day as your gala. Skip this BGD and double down hard on one that really resonates with your donors. Segment your audience for those appeals.

Segment 1 , Option 1 (attending gala): "We're looking forward to you coming to the Gala! In case tonight's golden ticket gets used on the Italy trip, here's a chance to win the next best thing: A Wine Country Getaway! Make a quick $10 donation for a chance to win a Big Give Day prize in our Give!Guide campaign. <link> See you tonight!"
Segment 1 , Option 2 (attending gala): Omit them from your newsletter audience on this one email blast.
Segment 2 (not attending gala): "Today's BGD is a Wine Country Giveaway!..."

You get the idea. Right?

The Big Give Days (2025)

This year's schedule:

November 1, 5, 11, 13, 19, 25
December 2, 10, 17, 27, 28, 29, 30
⚠️ We've got a DOUBLE BGD week early in the campaign (Nov 11 and 13).

Things to know:

The first BGD is opening day (11/1).
They're mostly on Wednesdays.
Giving Tuesday (12/2) doubles down with a BGD.
Finishing with a BGD blitz to help draw as many donations as we can in advance of Dec. 31.

🚨2025 BIG GIVE DAY GRAPHICS🚨

Our amazing creative department here at WW has built some gorgeous graphics for the 2025 Big Give Days. Woo! Give!Guide will use these graphics on our website and social media accounts, as well as in our email comms. Please feel free to create your own (we love co-branded marketing!) or use these to lighten your load.

👉 Big Give Day Graphics with no prize description (best for emails that already include narrative description)
👉 Big Give Day Graphics with prize descriptions (great for social media!)