Over the past decade, GivingTuesday has rapidly evolved from a small social media holiday into a full-blown philanthropic movement. In fact, 2024 was a record breaking year with more than $3.6 billion donated and 36.1 million participants worldwide!
Regardless of your mission, GivingTuesday presents a great opportunity for your nonprofit. But the increasing popularity of the movement also means that your nonprofit will need to create a stellar campaign in order to stand out.
This year, GivingTuesday falls on December 2. If you haven’t started preparing, there’s no time like the present!
Here are four secrets (that are now not so secret at all) to success in your GivingTuesday campaign this year.
Are you ready for GivingTuesday 2026?
Check out our GivingTuesday Resource Center and get the tools you need to plan your 2026 campaign. Templates, worksheets, calendars, checklists—they’re all here!
1) Build Excitement With a Unified Strategy
There’s an old saying: “Success exists at the intersection of preparation and opportunity.” And when it comes to GivingTuesday, it’s not enough to just hope for the best you want to prepare for the best.
The best way to start planning your GivingTuesday campaign is to think about what you’d like your organization to accomplish on the big day. You can work backward from there.
Set Clear Goals
Gather a group of relevant stakeholders and hammer out what you’d like to achieve. This is a great time to ask the big questions, like:
- How will GivingTuesday fit into our year-end plans?
- What budget can we allocate for GivingTuesday?
- How can we stand out from similar nonprofits on GivingTuesday?
- What is our GivingTuesday fundraising goal?
Once you have two to three measurable goals, you can start planning your campaign.
Consistent Messaging
Building excitement with a unified strategy means every email, social post, website message, donation form, etc. works together like a well-tuned orchestra. This coordinated effort amplifies your story, creates a powerful buzz, and helps your community feel like they’re truly part of something big.
Your GivingTuesday materials should all tell the same story, use the same key messages and share a similar look and feel. This consistency will help build trust in your work and reinforce your goal, no matter where someone sees your message.
Create a Campaign Plan
Where will you share your message (email, social media, website, text, direct mail)? When will you start promoting your GivingTuesday goal? What messages do you want to send and when will you send them? You’ll want to plan your communications calendar well in advance, including pre-campaign build-up, day-of updates, and post-campaign thank yous and follow ups.
Case Study: Lawrence Humane Society
Take it from Lawrence Humane Society, strategy works! They created a strategy that was complete with website updates, social media posts, and emails. Along with pre-event promotion, their plan created a more exciting experience for their donors.
“The first year we did it, we were just dipping our toes in the water,” said Meghan Scheibe, Interim Executive Director of Lawrence Humane. “Even without a big strategy in place, we still raised around $2,500. We thought that was pretty great.”
What happened next? Scheibe and her team used lessons learned from the first campaign to build out a better strategy. “We were able to create a specific campaign around the event. We got to use a campaign thermometer widget. People were able to watch along as we progressed. I think it got more people excited to donate.”
The excitement paid off, and Lawrence Humane received an overwhelming amount of support—approximately $14,000.
By promoting their GivingTuesday campaign across multiple channels, they got their appeal to more people. This consistent, thoughtful approach to communication creates connection. Those connections drive more donations.
2) Get Your Supporters Involved
People are more likely to respond to a call-to-action from somebody within their social network. That’s why social media strategy and peer-to-peer fundraising can be powerful ways that you can leverage your community and raise money for your cause.
GivingTuesday Social Media Strategy
GivingTuesday on social media isn’t just about making noise; it’s about making connections. Think of it as your biggest storytelling day of the year. With a clear strategy, you can cut through the clutter, share compelling impact stories, and inspire your community to join you in making a real difference. It’s all about planning your message to resonate, building excitement, and making it easy for everyone to give and share.
There are also lots of templates and resources available so that you don’t have to start from scratch. Check out GivingTuesday’s graphics and logos that you can incorporate into your social posts and we also have our very own GivingTuesday Toolkit that includes social media templates and more!
Create Competition with Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers
This GivingTuesday, consider asking your most dedicated constituents to hold their own fundraisers on your behalf. That could mean your monthly donors, established volunteers, or people who have benefitted from your services in the past.
Ask them to share a bit about what your cause means to them and explain how easy it is to build a fundraising page. Soon, you’ll have expanded your network, opening the door to brand new donors. Keeping your fundraising process as streamlined as possible is crucial to recruiting people willing to raise funds on your behalf.
Using a peer-to-peer fundraising tool, like Neon Fundraise, makes creating peer-to-peer fundraising pages and communicating with your fundraisers much easier.
A good donor management system also allows you to track your GivingTuesday campaign and retain information from your new donors in real-time. Once your campaign comes to a close, you’ll have detailed reports on your success and a newly expanded contact list.
For more information on leveraging peer-to-peer fundraising for your organization, check out Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: The Complete Nonprofit Guide.
3) Make Sure You Have the Right Tools to Succeed
Use Branded Donation Forms to Build Trust
From the very beginning, GivingTuesday has thrived on the power of social media. The best GivingTuesday campaigns leverage their supporters’ online networks (along with a well-placed hashtag or two) to spread their appeal far and wide.
If people unfamiliar with your organization end up seeing your appeal and deciding to donate, you want to take extra care that your donation form doesn’t give them second thoughts. Your online donation form has the power to make or break your campaign’s success.
It’s important that potential donors feel safe sharing their personal and financial information with your organization online. An unbranded, boilerplate donation form might make them think twice about giving, which may cost you their valuable dollars going toward your cause.
Have a CRM That Does the Heavy Lifting For You
With a robust CRM by your side, you can set yourself up to check many GivingTuesday to-dos off the list without headache or hassle:
- Build landing pages and forms for your GivingTuesday campaign
- Track and collect donor and gift data in one centralized hub
- Build reports and get intuitive dashboard analytics to see how your campaign is going
- Send out automated and personalized emails that include all your relevant donor information.
- And so much more!
This set-it-and-forget-it solution saves you time and resources that you can pour back into your organization’s mission and allows you to spend more time creating the best GivingTuesday campaigns ever!
See Neon One in Action!
Check out these 12 self-guided tours and learn how Neon One’s tools empower nonprofits to connect with their communities, move their supporters to action, and simplify their operations.
4) Don’t Fail on Follow-Up
GivingTuesday supporters don’t have to be just one-and-done supporters. When people care deeply about your work, they often give again and want to be part of something bigger. And a big way to keep them coming back? Build meaningful connections.
You should always send a donation receipt but personalized thank-yous and even a post event follow up email can go a long way in making your donors feel appreciated (and excited to do it again!)
Donation Receipt
Nonprofit donation receipts make donors happy and are useful for your nonprofit.
Donors will use them as a confirmation that their gift was received (and are helpful if donors want to itemize their charitable giving when tax season rolls around.) Similarly, good donation receipt processes are an important part of staying compliant with IRS requirements.
Your donation receipts need to include transaction details, but they also can be another opportunity to delight your donors. In addition to standard receipt information, you could add a thank you, share an impact statement, or add a photo or two that reiterate their connection to your cause.
A Personalized Thank You
Build a bond with your new GivingTuesday donors by sending them personalized “thank-you” emails, not just a receipt. It’s important to acknowledge each new constituent by name and to thank them for their exact donation amount. The goal is to be personal and warm while reinforcing the impact of their donation tied to your nonprofit’s mission.
You don’t want to ask them for money in your thank you note (they already did that!) but you could ask them to take other actions to stay up-to-date and engaged with your work—”Sign up for a newsletter,” “Follow us on Instagram,” “Join us at our upcoming event,” or “Come out to volunteer.”
You can also send donors an event follow-up email (template here) highlighting the impact that their specific impact had and highlighting how their donation supported the overall success of your GivingTuesday campaign!
“Yesterday, you helped us raise $15,639.22 and meet our GivingTuesday goal! Because of your support and the support of other people in our community, we’ll be able to acquire the 20-acre lot of Florida scrubland that’s currently at risk of being developed. The plants and animals that rely on that precious ecosystem are safe.”
If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could even send swag that represents your brand and the work that you’re doing by mail as a thank you to your top donors (e.g. a sticker from your nonprofit, a branded t-shirt, a hat with your logo, etc.)
You’re All Set For GivingTuesday Success!
With the proper tools and strategy in place, you can make a huge impact this GivingTuesday. By creating a strong plan, getting your supporters involved, having the right tools in place and focusing on follow up, you’ll not only see success on GivingTuesday—you’ll be building the foundation for ongoing relationships with your new donors.
If you’re looking for more GivingTuesday resources, including templates, worksheets, checklists, and eBooks, head on over to Neon One’s GivingTuesday Resource Center!
