 What Worked for Us on Giving Tuesday 2025: Real Strategies, Real ResultsEach year, I get a little more reflective about what actually moves the needle on Giving Tuesday. It’s one part adrenaline, one part strategy, and one part relationships – the same ingredients that fuel fundraising the rest of the year, just turned up a few notches. This year? We hit our match. We saw strong donor response. And we learned a few things worth carrying into the next big push. Here’s what worked: 1. The Match Game, with a Twist Last year, we had a $20,000 match and hit it – barely. It took extending our deadline to pull it across the finish line. This year, with our donors’ permission, we split that ask into two: two $10,000 matches from two separate donors. One for Giving Tuesday. One saved for Calendar Year-End. It created a sense of focus. One target, one day. And we met it. Now we can head into December with some real momentum. “We hit the match on Giving Tuesday” makes a great line in every follow-up email. It tells a success story that donors helped write – and that builds confidence for the next ask. 2. Direct Contact Beat the Megaphone Most of our gifts came through personal outreach. Not social media. Not big email blasts. Just me and my annual giving staffer reaching out by phone and plain emails from our Outlook inboxes. That’s where the action happened. That’s where the giving happened. I’m not knocking digital strategy – it plays its role. But, for us, Giving Tuesday was won in the inbox and on the phone. This reinforces my observations I wrote about earlier this fall about digital burnout and the reprise of analog communications. 3. Board Engagement Started Early More than half of our board gave on Giving Tuesday. That didn’t happen by accident. We start talking about Giving Tuesday in September. By November, they’ve heard the plan, seen the goal, and received a cheat sheet with sample language and graphics to share on social. The week before Giving Tuesday, we send that cheat sheet again. And this year, they showed up. Not just with gifts, but with pride – and we’re closer to hitting 100% board giving for the year because of it. 4. Targeted Appeals to Past Giving Tuesday Donors and LYBUNTs We made it easy on ourselves this year. Instead of trying to inspire everyone on our list, we reached out to the people who’ve already shown us they like giving on Giving Tuesday. We pulled two lists:
When the subject line says, “I know you like to give on this day…” it doesn’t feel like a cold call. It’s a reminder. And it works. 5. Monthly Donors and Pledgers Want to Participate, Too This one surprised me last year and held true again. Donors who already give monthly or have pledge commitments still want to be part of Giving Tuesday. They like seeing the school hit a goal. They like contributing to a match. So, they give again. That meant a few extra gifts came in from already-committed supporters. Nothing huge – but meaningful. Here’s how we handled those emails: "I hope you are doing well! I wanted to reach out today to let you know that it is Giving Tuesday and Starr King School for the Ministry has a goal of raising $10,000 to reach a challenge match of $10,000 (for a total of $20,000 for this beloved school). If you would like to participate, as you have so generously done in the past, your gift would again be matched 100%. Just visit www.sksm.edu/givingtuesday TODAY and you can make your gift online. Also, we know and appreciate ALL you have done for Starr King as sustainers this year so please don’t feel obligated to give more. I just know you have given to matches in the past and wanted to make sure you knew!" No pressure. Just an invitation to be part of something they’ve supported before. Giving Tuesday doesn’t have to be a guessing game. It’s a day to do what already works in your shop – just more of it, with a little more urgency and clarity. We focused on:
It paid off. Not just in dollars, but in board engagement, team morale, and a strong hand to play as we close out the year. And that’s the kind of success worth repeating. Cheers!  P.S. Like this kind of insight? Subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising and get my best articles, tools, and curated resources every week – including webinars, videos, and free downloads
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 Giving Tuesday is a Launchpad, Not a One-Day EventIf you’re treating Giving Tuesday like a one-and-done campaign, you’re missing the point – and the potential. I want you to think of it differently. Think of Giving Tuesday as your momentum builder. The snowball at the top of the year-end giving hill. Not just a date on the calendar, but the kickoff to your most generous season of the year. When you plan it right, Giving Tuesday becomes the moment your donors start paying attention again. The moment they re-engage, make that first gift, and feel the energy behind your mission. It gives you stories to tell in December, a list of donors to follow up with, and progress to build on. This isn’t about chasing trends. This is about strategy. And if you want it to work, you’ve got to start now. Give your donors a real reason to act.My friend, Jake Strang said it best: “As fundraisers, we need to ask ourselves what our donors are asking themselves: ‘Why today?’” That question is everything. Your donors want to make a difference – not just by giving, but by giving on a day that matters. Giving Tuesday answers that question. It creates urgency. It offers momentum. It taps into a global spirit of generosity and focuses it on your mission. But only if you’ve done the work to meet them there. If the messaging isn’t clear, if the plan is rushed, if it’s just another email in the inbox… you’ll miss the moment. The magic is in the lead-up. And the lead-up starts now. Here’s what to focus on while you still have time: 1. Line up your challenge match now. A matching gift is one of the strongest incentives you can offer on Giving Tuesday. But the kind of donors who fund matches – your board, your loyal givers, your major donors – need time. Time to understand the impact. Time to coordinate logistics. Time to feel ownership of the campaign. Don’t treat your match as a checkbox on a planning list. Build it as a strategic asset. Ask now, while there’s room to shape it well. 2. Invite your major donors into the campaign early. Don’t just ask them for money. Give them a role. They can:
Major donors want to be part of something bigger. Giving Tuesday gives you a clear “why now” to help them say yes. 3. Pre-load your pledge list. Here’s one I swear by: Take pledges before the day. Use events, meetings, or board gatherings to ask for early commitments. Then, on Giving Tuesday, your team has a clear list to follow up with. These aren’t cold calls – they’re reminders. “Today’s the day.” That kind of focused effort drives real results. 4. Plan for analog tactics (they still work). Want to send handwritten postcards? Want to use the phone effectively? Want to get a thank-you letter in the mail before year-end? You need to start now. Donors are inundated with email. But the mailbox? That’s a quieter space. A handwritten note cuts through. A real phone call builds connection. These tactics take time, and that’s exactly why they work. 5. Build your multi-channel plan early. When you start now, you don’t have to rely on one message in one channel. You can actually coordinate email, social, print, phone, and even live events with intention. That’s how you stand out. You can code your appeals. Track what’s working. Share updates in real time. You have space to think like a strategist, not a last-minute firefighter. 6. Leave a little space for improv. You’re not planning to control every detail. You’re planning to give yourself room to respond. Maybe a donor offers a surprise match. Maybe a social post gains traction. Maybe the campaign falls just short at midnight, and you need to extend. When your plan isn’t packed too tight, you can adjust with ease – and sometimes those pivots are what make the day feel alive. Stop treating Giving Tuesday like a checkbox. Treat it like what it really is: your launchpad. The starting line for your most generous season. The moment your donors start leaning back in. The energy surge you’ll need to carry you through December. And the best part? You don’t need to overhaul your shop to make this happen. You just need to start early, plan with purpose, and stay connected to why it all matters in the first place. If you’re looking for a sign to start working on Giving Tuesday 2025… this is it. Get your match lined up. Draft that pledge form. Sketch out your outreach plan. Then get ready to make this the year your Giving Tuesday becomes more than a day – it becomes a difference-maker. Cheers,  P.S. Like this kind of insight? Subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising and get my best articles, tools, and curated resources every week – including webinars, videos, and free downloads. If you liked this…
 What Worked for Giving Tuesday 2024Giving Tuesday 2024 is officially in the books, and I’m thrilled to share what worked for us this year! The seminary I work for has participated in Giving Tuesday on and off for almost a decade, but this year, we took bold steps that paid off in a record-breaking campaign. Spoiler alert: We set a $20,000 challenge match - our highest ever - and not only met it but exceeded it, raising $40,000! (We even used a strategic extension to cross the finish line - more on that later.) Whether you’re looking for fresh ideas or want to refine your strategy, here’s what made our campaign a success: 1. Leveraging a Challenge Match: Doubling the ImpactChallenge matches are a must-have in your Giving Tuesday toolbox. This year, our $20,000 match created a sense of urgency and gave donors an irresistible reason to give.
Why It Worked: It answered the critical question, “Why should I give today?” A generic “it’s Giving Tuesday” doesn’t cut it anymore because every nonprofit is vying for attention. A match is specific, exciting, and makes donors feel like their gift has double the impact.  What if I told you that there was a source of annual fund dollars out there that could cost you 18 cents to raise a dollar and raise those funds very quickly in a short period of time? And what if I told you that you probably were not currently utilizing this particular source of revenue for your institution? You would be interested, right? Let me tell you what the secret source of revenue is . . . Facebook ads. Yep, Facebook ads. Believe it or not, I recently did a test in which I ran Facebook ads for year-end fundraising and the cost to raise a dollar was as low as 18 cents. In all honesty, this test grew out of the fact that I work for a very small shop and I’m the only fundraiser. I needed to come up with a calendar year-end giving campaign for our social media. Last year I spent a lot of time crafting unique messages to be used for each day in December. This year I was just running out of time and had no real creativity left in me. So instead, I decided to craft three very targeted year-end promotional messages and boost them significantly with Facebook ads. I had a little bit of extra money in my budget that I re-purposed in order to do this. Not a ton. I'm talking less than $1,200 to experiment with. So I divided my ad dollars up between three boosted ads. The first two were to promote general giving. One was targeted to those outside of our normal constituency on Facebook (people who don’t currently like our page). The second I boosted specifically to people within our community (who currently like our page). The third leg of this campaign was a specific boost to encourage our constituents to become “sustainers” (recurring monthly donors). All three of these campaigns were successful. First, our campaign outside of our normal constituency reached over 44,000 people who may or may not have ever heard of the school before but had our affinity with the religious community that we serve. We also garnered 14 new page likes. In the general year-end giving part of the campaign, over 500 people clicked on our giving website. We got 24 gifts out of this campaign, totaling almost $5,000. The results came out to only $0.18 to raise a dollar! This was revelatory to think that we could not only do public relations and communications work, developing our constituencies on social media, but at the same time raise some serious money The monthly sustainer campaign was also quite successful. We did not spend very much on that campaign, only about $100 but we got 4 new sustainer donors. These new donors represent $65 monthly (or $780 more per year). That doesn’t even fully represent the lifetime value of those monthly donors. If you just take the first year of value from those monthly donors then it was 34 cents to raise a dollar for this micro-campaign. I would argue it is well worth it when you consider that most of these donors will roll on from year to year as ongoing monthly donors I was surprised that something like Facebook ads could actually work for fundraising. I think my bias against it is because we want these digital mediums to be a free way to reach people. We know they have power to reach people but don’t want to pay for it. And yet, we know that mail and phone are worth the investment. Why are we not willing to invest real money in the digital mediums yet? Facebook (at least) is here to stay. It’s a reliable way of reaching people and we should start thinking about Facebook (and other forms of social media) with the same mindset we use when we think about phone to mail. Namely, that you have to spend money to make money. We need to start being smart about spending part of our fundraising budget on social media. Run some tests. Look at them with an eye to return on investment. Track the same kind of statistics that we track for phone and mail fundraising, including cost to raise a dollar. If you haven't been utilizing Facebook ads in order to grow your constituency on Facebook and raise real money, I would encourage you to undertake a test. Maybe run your fiscal year-end campaign or use it around a day of giving or some other point of urgency. You can gain new donors, new Facebook fans, and real money. You can do all those things to the tune of 20 cents to raise a dollar. I would argue it is worth the investment. Can you lobby for a little extra money in your budget ($500 or $1,000 or $2,000) to experiment with this medium? If it works, put it into your plan for next fiscal year. Do you already do Facebook ads? If not, is this something you could try? Let me know how it goes. As always, comments and questions are welcome and encouraged! Cheers, Jessica PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these:
PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my guide to Call Center Games for Free!    This week's feature is an interview with Jake Strang, now the Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement for the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Jake was, until recently, the Senior Associate Director of Annual Fund Program for Columbia University, where he played a role in the establishment of Columbia Giving Day, among many other things. Columbia Giving Day has become a tradition at Columbia, raising over $14 million in 24 hours this year. Jake started his career in fundraising as a Carolina Caller at the University of South Carolina, when I managed the call center. I'm so proud of his success!
I asked Jake some questions about getting started with giving days and what strategies have been the most successful in his experience.
*Giving Tuesday is a campaign to make the Tuesday after Thanksgiving dedicated to charitable giving, countering the commercial focus of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
No one department is responsible for a successful giving day. Working with your team is really the key to making the day a success. Often, creative solutions are needed to accomplish the overall goal and strong partnerships are what make it possible. Giving Days must be a team effort between everyone from annual giving to gift processing to web initiatives and marketing and communications. Without bringing in the full team and having support from senior management giving days can see only limited success. Challenge Matches and Incentives Challenge matches and incentives are another essential part of giving days. As fundraisers, we need to ask ourselves what our donors are asking themselves, “Why today?!” The answer is to make the gift go further via matching funds, engage new and returning audiences, build social reach, and set organization records. Among other reasons, this is why the giving day model truly works. Donors want to know they’ve made a difference, not just by giving but also by giving on this particular day. More and more we see the rise of the digital age in giving. How do you get donors interested and how do you keep them coming back? By providing live updates on the day, hourly challenges and friendly competition, donors are incentivized to come back and check on the progress throughout the day…and hopefully make an additional gift if they’re engaged! Innovation Don’t be afraid to innovate and try new things. Giving Days are a great platform for my two favorite words “pilot program.” Because the campaign is only 24 hours, it is special and should be treated as such. Giving days are a great place to test new ideas on a small scale and build them out once you see the response of your audience. At Columbia, we used Columbia Giving Day as an innovation springboard. Numerous pilot programs and technologies were created and then reused in everyday giving because they started on Giving Day.
By "gamificating" our ambassadors, they were encouraged to post, share, and get likes/comments on their status updates. We gave away prizes to our top ambassadors to reward them. We actually found that in year 1, our top ambassador was an international non-donor who made his first gift on Giving Day. After the success of the program, we later transitioned it to the Alumni Association who has continued to build and see success with engaging volunteers across the US and internationally in this way! Throughout the year, ambassadors are supplied content from events, graduation, as well as other top performing social posts keeping them engaged as they promote on behalf of the school. More about Jake Strang: With over a decade of fundraising experience, Jake Strang currently serves as the Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement at the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh, PA. He is responsible for overseeing annual giving, alumni marketing, and volunteer programs for the school. Prior to his current role, he spent four years with Columbia University as the Senior Associate Director for Annual Fund Programs. While there, Jake oversaw a number of Annual Funds, special initiatives and worked on the core team for the first five Columbia Giving Days. He began his fundraising career with Ruffalo Noel Levitz as a student caller for his alma mater, the University of South Carolina. He later was responsible for managing the phone programs at both South Carolina and Columbia University. Strang holds a Bachelors of Science in Marketing and Management from the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business and Master of Science from Columbia University in Fundraising and Non-Profit Management. |
Jessica Cloud, CFREI've been called the Tasmanian Devil of fundraising and I'm here to talk shop with you. Archives
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