Registration and Preparation

Watch and listen to a recording with slides, or read the full text below. NOTE: Some pieces of the video content may be outdated. Rely on the text below for the most up-to-date content.

Let's walk through how Give OUT Day works.

Give OUT Day is a month-long fundraising campaign culminating this year on May 30, the only national day of giving for the LGBTQ community. Since 2013, Give OUT Day has helped raise millions of dollars for hundreds of LGBTQ nonprofits across all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. This year, Give OUT Day is on May 30, but the campaign starts at the beginning of May. Give OUT Day is organized by Horizons Foundation, the world’s first LGBTQ community foundation, in partnership with our technology platform, Mightycause.

Let’s start with the first steps: registration and preparation. In the next lesson, we’ll cover donations, prizes, and fund disbursement.

Eligibility

Before you register, you first need to confirm that your organization is eligible to participate in Give OUT Day. The following organizations are eligible:

• An LGBTQ-primary incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit that includes the LGBTQ community in their mission, whose staff and board leadership are primarily LGBTQ, and which primarily serves LGBTQ people;
  
  
• A fiscally sponsored organization or project (including artists or filmmakers) serving the LGBTQ community, and which receives monies via an incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit;
  
  
• A program exclusively serving the LGBTQ community housed within an incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a broader mission (e.g., an LGBTQ student center housed in a university or an LGBTQ outreach program at a non-LGBTQ-specific community services organization); or
  
  
• A PFLAG, GSA, or GLSEN chapter

Government agencies, private non-operating foundations, for-profit companies, and individuals are not eligible to participate in Give OUT Day.

All nonprofits participating in Give OUT Day are expected to honor and model the highest levels of ethics in fundraising. For a comprehensive Code of Ethics for fundraising, please review the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ ethics codes.

Organizations must certify that they are registered with their state Secretary of State to conduct charitable solicitation. Final approval for eligible participation will be determined by Horizons Foundation/Give OUT Day.

Registration

Once you confirm your organization is eligible, it’s time to register! When you register, you fill out a simple form about your organization, which takes only a few minutes. Registration is required to access the platform and to determine your eligibility for prizes. You can register at giveoutday.org.

New to Give OUT Day and/or Mightycause? When you complete the registration form, it also automatically submits a request to claim your organization as an administrator on the platform. Approval of new administrators can take 24-48 hours to process, and you'll receive an email once your administrator request has been approved. You'll receive a separate email notifying you that your registration for Give OUT Day has been approved.

If you participated in Give OUT Day on our old platform, we recommend using the same email address as on the old platform if that email address is still in use.

Have you participated in Give OUT Day on Mightycause? Your Mightycause account should still be active, but we ask that you register for the current year’s campaign in order to determine eligibility for prizes.

Are you a fiscally sponsored organization? You'll need to submit a memorandum of understanding (MOU) letter between your organization and your fiscal sponsor. Use this template, and send your letter to [email protected] in order to set up your page. Then, you'll be able to register when the time comes.

Your Dashboard

Once you’ve logged into your Mightycause account, you can always navigate to your dashboard by clicking the circular image in the upper-right corner of any Mightycause page and selecting your organization. Your dashboard serves as the hub for your campaign, where you can edit your profile and settings, view fundraising data and donor information, and much more. We’ll explore all the key functionality of your dashboard as we progress through the curriculum.

Campaign Preparation

After you register, it’s time to prepare your campaign!