The biggest day in nonprofit fundraising is coming up fast! Are you as excited as we are? Start planning now to capture your share of GivingTuesday donations. With our four-part strategic approach, you’ll be ready.
Last year, GivingTuesday 2025 shattered records: Americans donated $4 billion, a 13% jump over the prior year, and 38.1 million people participated. Since GivingTuesday launched in 2012, cumulative giving in the US has topped $22.5 billion. The day now spans more than 80 countries around the world.
Giving isn’t just about dollars anymore, either. Volunteering was up 20% and people speaking out for causes they care about climbed 26% year over year, so don’t overlook non-cash ways to invite your supporters in.
Reminder: This year, GivingTuesday is December 1.
To help your organization make the most of this once-a-year fundraising opportunity, we’ve developed an easy four-step plan. Start now to make the most of the year’s biggest charitable day, without overwhelming your team.
STEP ONE: DESIGN & COPY
- Use the #GivingTuesday logo but make it your own. We encourage you to use your brand colors or creating a new mark relating to your mission. An animal shelter, for example, might work in a dog collar or dog biscuit shaped logo, while a veterans’ organization might use a red, white and blue color scheme.
- Feature a Matching Gift (or Challenge) offer if possible. It doesn’t matter how much the match is, just have one.
- If you don’t have a match, naming your campaign to provide donors a strong reason to give. For example, try headlines such as “Give the Gift of Health” or “Save a Child” on GivingTuesday.
- Magnify the importance of this giving occasion by branding your emails, texts, donation page, automated gift receipts, and thank you’s “GivingTuesday.” Be consistent throughout all your promotional efforts.
- Use #GivingTuesday in all your email and social promotions. You can also create your own distinct campaign hashtag unique to your organization.
- Lead with storytelling, not just stats in communications. Pair impact numbers with real, specific stories about one person or family your work has helped. Linking nonprofit work to individuals affected drives conversion better than data alone.
STEP TWO: ACTIVATE WITH EMAIL:
- Launch your campaign early. Deploy at least one email a week before GivingTuesday. Earlier and multiple times is better. There’s no reason not to invite your constituents to give now; they don’t need to wait for GivingTuesday.
- Consider your competition for attention – Black Friday and CyberMonday happen before GivingTuesday – your constituents’ Inbox will be filled with retail offers.
- Schedule an email (or two) the day before GivingTuesday to remind your constituents of the deadline.
Competition for the inbox is fierce on GivingTuesday, so deploy multiple emails throughout the day. If you only have one email scheduled (like many nonprofits), reconsider and add one or two more!
- Send at least one email in the morning.
- Follow with a minimum of one in the late afternoon or evening, since giving still builds throughout the day and tends to peak in the evening hours.
- Use a different “signer” or “from” sender than usual to stand out in the inbox.
- Grab attention with a great (and new) subject line for every sent.
- Boost open rates by using an emoji or personalization.
- “Forward” your morning email from another person for the afternoon send, so people who missed it the first time see it again.
- Segment your list. Recurring donors, lapsed donors, and brand-new prospects don’t need the same message. Thank your recurring donors for what they’ve already made possible; re-engage lapsed donors with what’s changed since they last gave.
- Consider using a GIF in some of your email templates. Avoid issues by testing early to make sure it renders properly. And if you have a countdown clock banner, confirm the service you’re using doesn’t cap opens or throttle at your payment evel.
- With the increase in DAF and QCD giving, create special messaging to encourage noncash gifts. For donors 73 and older, the required minimum distribution from their IRA account is December 31.
- Create a GivingTuesday-specific confirmation/acknowledgement email. Helping donors feel good about their gift will help cultivate ongoing support.
STEP THREE: UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE:
- Include a lightbox/pop-up on your website to draw attention to the special offer. Promote early in the month, then change out the lightbox creative weekly so it’s fresh for repeat visitors and easy to align with emails and paid social campaign. The last lightbox creative should be deadline focused posted on Sunday and left active until midnight on GivingTuesday.
- Make sure your donation page is mobile-friendly: big boxes for ask amounts, a one-click monthly toggle, and digital wallet options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo.
- Many nonprofits have access to DAFPay. You might not realize it’s available to your organization. Search Chariot’s webpage for details.
- Add to your donation page so donors are encouraged to give noncash gifts as well.
- Consider targeting your DAF donors for personalized messaging.
- Digital wallet donations jumped roughly 82% year over year in 2025. If your form doesn’t offer them, you’re creating friction that costs you gifts.
- Add an abandoned-gift reminder if your platform supports it. It’s one of the easiest ways to recover donors who start a gift but don’t finish.
STEP FOUR: PREPARE TO CONNECT BY TEXT AND SOCIAL
TEXT MESSAGING:
- If you have SMS opt-ins or use a peer-2-peer approach, put text-to-give to work.
- Send a text the morning of GivingTuesday and a last-chance text in the evening, mirroring your email cadence, but keep the volume to 2–4 texts total for the campaign so you don’t burn out the channel.
PAID ADS & ORGANIC SOCIAL:
- Create ad campaigns to acquire donors by targeting a donor lookalike audience, current, lapsed, and opt-out emails for Meta.
- Promote your Match Fund through both organic and paid posts.
- Use a square (or vertical, for TikTok/Reels) image or video tile so creative travels easily across platforms.
- Run paid search and display ads, leveraging #GivingTuesday in your ad copy.
- Search #GivingTuesday yourself and see which nonprofits show up at the top; see what’s working.
- If you have a Google Ad Grant, pause it during your GivingTuesday campaign window and shift to your brand and mission terms instead.
FINISHING TOUCHES: WRAP UP AND FOLLOW THROUGH
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:
- Design a dedicated landing page that mirrors the GivingTuesday offer and imagery from your other communications, to drive conversions.
- Enlist a partner, board member, or influencer to widen your reach and add credibility. Every friend of your organization can become another source of new supporters.
- Promote GivingTuesday in your e-newsletters.
- Include QR codes on postcards, event signage, or anything printed, so a phone scan can take people straight to your giving page.
- Ask for a monthly sustainer/recurring gift, and make converting a one-time gift to monthly a simple one-click option.
- Don’t put your deliverability at risk by deploying to a stale list.
- Your email list should be clean; run it through file hygiene to scrub bad addresses well before November 1. Include the past few year’s GivingTuesday supporters as a separate segment for recapture.
- For newly acquired donors, consider a special welcome series that specifically acknowledges their GivingTuesday gift and what it made possible.
- If using AI tools to draft copy, brainstorm subject lines, or summarize donor data this year, be sure a human carefully reviews everything before it goes out. AI is a great first-draft partner, not a substitute for your organization’s voice.
DAY AFTER EMAIL:
- Demonstrate your gratitude to those who donated with a thank-you email the day after GivingTuesday.
- Deploy an email the day after GivingTuesday to non-donors letting them know it’s not too late, but remove the match offer unless you’ve secured an extension.
FINAL REMINDERS:
- Evaluate your results and start planning for next year. Build on what worked and change what didn’t.
- Oh, and don’t forget about fundraising in December! GivingTuesday should be your stepping stone into strong year-end giving.
Good luck! We hope these planning steps and tips help your nonprofit get your share of #GivingTuesday revenue.