— KEY TAKEAWAYS
Yes, GivingTuesday is one of the best days of the year to promote monthly giving, both for new donor acquisition and for building long-term, committed support. .
- Donors who start monthly gifts on GivingTuesday don’t cannibalize year-end fundraising: the majority of them go on to make a separate, additional gift to the same organization before the year ends.
- Promoting recurring giving on GivingTuesday brings in both new and returning donors, expanding your base of committed, long-term supporters rather than just capturing a one-time gift.
- These donors also stick around: recurring donors overall retain at 78–80% year over year, compared to just 32–35% for one-time donors, and stay engaged for 7.5 to 8 years on average. Neon One, 2026 Recurring Donor Report
- The biggest misconception is that asking for monthly gifts on GivingTuesday will hurt your year-end campaign. The data says the opposite is true.
GivingTuesday is more than a day to raise a bunch of money—although that can certainly happen. It’s really a day to engage your community, celebrate generosity, and connect with new and existing supporters alike.
That’s why promoting monthly giving on GivingTuesday is such a good idea.
Whether you have a zillion monthly donors or haven’t even thought about making it an option, GivingTuesday is an ideal opportunity to invite your supporters to support you this way.
You don’t have to take our word for it! Here’s what our data has to say about how people approach monthly giving on GivingTuesday and what you can do about it.
QUICK ANSWER
Should I promote monthly giving on GivingTuesday?
Yes! You should promote monthly giving on GivingTuesday because it’s one of the most reliable days of the year to convert one-time interest into an ongoing gift, without cutting into your year-end campaign. Monthly gifts initiated on GivingTuesday account for around 12% of all monthly gifts started that month, even though GivingTuesday is just one day out of roughly 30.
It works because GivingTuesday puts your organization in front of donors who are already primed to give, and a recurring ask meets them at exactly the moment they’re deciding how to support you. Across a set of 1,854 nonprofits, monthly signups on GivingTuesday grew from 409 in 2022 to 549 in 2023, split between new and returning donors both years.
These donors don’t disappear once the campaign ends, either: 68.95% to 80.33% of them go on to make an additional gift by year’s end, and most are still giving on a recurring basis nearly two years later.
Key distinction: This isn’t just about the one-day total. Promoting monthly giving on GivingTuesday builds the kind of recurring support that keeps paying off well past the campaign—recurring donors overall retain at 78–80%, compared to just 32–35% for one-time donors, with an average donor lifetime of 7.5 to 8 years (Neon One, 2026 Recurring Donor Report).
Will People Make Monthly Gifts on GivingTuesday?
Yes. In The Recurring Giving Report: Data-Backed Insights for Sustainable Generosity, we found that GivingTuesday is a great day to talk about your monthly giving program.
GivingTuesday always falls in late November or early December. Monthly gifts initiated on that day account for around 12% of all monthly gifts initiated during the month in which GivingTuesday falls. That’s an even more significant figure when you remember that December and November are two of the three most popular months for setting up this kind of donation.
It’s also worth paying attention to given where recurring giving is headed generally. In Neon One’s 2026 Recurring Donor Report, we found that the average nonprofit’s recurring donor base grew from 19 donors in 2023 to 25 in 2025—a 31.58% increase — even as overall donor bases shrank 5.45% over the same stretch. Recurring revenue grew 36.25% across the sector in that time.
Monthly giving isn’t a nice-to-have anymore; for a lot of organizations, it’s the part of your donor base that’s actually growing.
Get the 2026 Recurring Donor Report
Data-backed findings from over 4,000 nonprofits and 2,000 nonprofit donors show why recurring givers are the future of nonprofit fundraising.
Promoting Monthly Giving on GivingTuesday Engages New and Returning Donors Alike
If you’re focusing on building and engaging your community this GivingTuesday, inviting people to set up monthly gifts will help you achieve that goal.
In our 2024 report, we looked at the performance of 1,854 nonprofits who processed monthly gifts on GivingTuesday in both 2022 and 2023. Check out these numbers:
- In 2022, 409 people set up monthly gifts to this group of nonprofits. 305 of them were returning donors; 104 of them were brand-new supporters.
- In 2023, the number of people making monthly gifts on GivingTuesday surged to 549. 384 were returning donors, and 165 were new ones.
And you don’t need a major-gift strategy to bring these people in. The 2026 Recurring Donor Report found that 94.5% of recurring donors are everyday supporters who give less than $5,000 a year. These aren’t major donors who need years of individual cultivation; they’re people already in your community who just need an easy way to say yes.
There are a few things to take away from these statistics.
The first is that, yes, people are willing to make monthly giving part of their GivingTuesday plans. The second is that promoting your monthly giving program is a fantastic way to engage existing supporters. And the third is that there might be people who have never donated to you before who are willing to make a monthly gift.
Promoting Monthly Giving on GivingTuesday Won’t Hurt Your End-of-Year Fundraising
This concern—that asking for monthly gifts on GivingTuesday will discourage donors from giving to an end-of-year campaign—is a common one. But it’s not necessary.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: The people who choose to support you with monthly gifts are your biggest and most invested supporters. If you intentionally build relationships with them and make them feel like they’re part of a community who are doing important work, they’ll come through for you.
Look at what the data tell us:
- In 2022, 282 donors (68.95%) who initiated recurring gifts on GivingTuesday made another gift to the same organization by the end of the year.
- In 2023, 441 donors (80.33%) did the same.
That extra year-end gift matters because monthly donors are worth more over time, period. The 2026 Recurring Donor Report put a number on it: the average recurring donor’s 2025 lifetime value was $7,288.26, compared to $3,606.90 for one-time donors—more than double.
When you promote monthly giving on GivingTuesday, the people who choose to make that kind of gift are telling you that they’re invested in your work. Spend some time cultivating those donors. Say “thank you.” Call out and celebrate their generosity. Tell them their impact. When the end of the year rolls around, make a case for why they should make an additional gift.
You may be amazed at the response. Cultivate these relationships over time, and you can build a donor base that will help sustain your work for years.
Get the 2024 Recurring Giving Report
We analyzed five years of giving data from over 100,00 nonprofit donors and found that recurring givers are some of the most valuable and committed supporters an organization can have.
Monthly Donors Stay Engaged After GivingTuesday
Running an effective GivingTuesday campaign—or any effective campaign, really—takes work and planning. When you retain the donors you acquire on that day, you can make sure you get the most of the time, energy, and resources you’ve invested.
The 2026 Recurring Donor Report found that recurring donor retention held between 78% and 80%, while non-recurring donor retention fell from 35.75% to 32.41% over the same period.
According to that research, recurring donors’ average lifetime ran 7.5 to 8 years, versus just 1.5 to 2 years for one-time donors.
But is that true for people who make monthly gifts on GivingTuesday?
Yes!
When we looked at donor retention rates in 2024, we found that 68.95% of donors who initiated monthly gifts on GivingTuesday in 2022 were still active—their monthly gifts were still ongoing almost two years later.
For monthly donors from GivingTuesday 2023, that percentage was 73.22%.
These aren’t flash-in-the-pan supporters—they stay engaged for a long time! Promoting monthly giving on GivingTuesday is a really valuable way to build a base of steady, reliable revenue from highly engaged donors.
Resources for Making the Most of Monthly Giving on GivingTuesday
Together, all of these data points tell a story. People in your community, whether they’ve donated to you before or are brand new to your organization, are ready and willing to make monthly gifts on GivingTuesday. When they do, they’re very likely to support you for a long time—they’re even likely to give again before the end of the year!
But what do you actually do with this information? How do you get people excited about monthly giving on GivingTuesday? And how can you turn that excitement into actual gifts?
Here are some links and resources that will help.
Understanding Monthly Giving Programs
- Recurring Donations 101: A Guide for Nonprofits: Not familiar with monthly giving? That’s okay! Here’s an intro to the topic.
- How to Start, Name, and Run a Successful Monthly Giving Program: Monthly giving programs take a little work, but that work can have amazing outcomes. Here are some pointers for getting the best results.
Running a Monthly Giving Program
- How to Craft the Perfect Recurring Donation Message (+ 7 Examples): Writing an appeal from scratch can be scary. Here are some tips for creating a great appeal, plus examples to get you started.
- Recurring Giving Masterclass: How TSSUS Grew Its Recurring Donors From 11 to 500+: Need a little more inspiration? This masterclass from The Turner Syndrome Society of the United States is full of examples, tips, and ideas that will get you excited about promoting monthly giving on GivingTuesday.
Use These Resources to Promote Monthly Giving on GivingTuesday
Does this article have you thinking about how you can build your community by talking about monthly giving this GivingTuesday? We have (even more) resources to help!
Check out our GivingTuesday Resource Center for planning worksheets, social media templates, email templates (including some for monthly gifts), blog articles, links to webinars, and other resources that will help you build the best-ever GivingTuesday campaign.
Get Your GivingTuesday Templates, Guides, and More!
Neon One’s GivingTuesday Resource Center has all the resources you need to craft an unforgettable campaign and kick off your year-end giving push.
Author Bio
Abby Jarvis, Head of Research and Editorial
Abby Jarvis is a writer, marketer, and speaker at Neon One, and she’s passionate about giving nonprofits the tools they need to connect with their supporters. Her 13 years in the nonprofit technology industry have been dedicated to understanding how and why donors support their favorite causes, studying donor trends and behavior, and sharing data-backed best practices that nonprofits can use to build successful fundraising programs.
