Giving Tuesday is a new opportunity for nonprofits to attract, engage, and retain donors every year. Charitable organizations that plan early and get creative have more fundraising potential to look forward to.
So, how do you find creative Giving Tuesday ideas this year? What will make your campaign memorable? How can you have the most successful giving day yet?
Our list of 12 Giving Tuesday ideas for nonprofits is your go-to resource for everything you need to stand tall as we approach the holiday season. Let’s dive in!
Since its launch in 2012, Giving Tuesday has grown from helping nonprofits raise $10 million to over $3.1 billion in nearly 100 countries on a single day of generosity in 2023. According to the official GivingTuesday organization, 2024 giving levels have held steady since last year’s impressive giving levels.
Aside from an exciting season ahead of donations, Giving Tuesday gets people talking and thinking about giving back, a concept referred to as radical generosity. Nonprofits see people take action in various ways beyond just donating money.
With more creative ways to interact with supporters and invite them into campaigns, Giving Tuesday has the potential to fulfill annual fundraising goals and fuel giving into the following year, too.
When you consider your Giving Tuesday strategy, it’s not enough to think about those final fundraising goals. Today’s donors want to feel highly involved in the charitable organizations they support, making donor engagement, community, and meaningful relationship building a key focus for nonprofits.
It’s essential to consider a donor’s experience from their first impression of your nonprofit to confirmation of their first completed donation. At the same time, you can’t forget to be proactive about ways to nurture those donors into the new year.
There are so many ways to get supporters (new and old) involved with your cause and keep them excited about giving to your nonprofit long after Giving Tuesday is over. How? Well, we’re glad you asked.
Get ready to dive into our list of 12 new Giving Tuesday ideas and successful campaign examples for your best year yet.
Social media is where Giving Tuesday thrives. Donors are more commonly heading to their TikTok and Instagram feeds to learn about new causes and engage in fundraisers that their peers or influencers share.
It’s one thing to promote a Giving Tuesday campaign on social media and another to create one from the start. You can (and should) use social media to post your nonprofit’s Giving Tuesday goals and encourage people to participate, but you can also get a bit more creative.
Depending on your goals and ideal donors, there are many ways to use social platforms. Below are a few ideas to inspire you.
This will probably be no surprise, but Giving Tuesday has an official hashtag! Well, two to be exact. Both #GivingTuesday and #GivingTuesday[Current Year] have a lot of potential to boost engagement.
Using the official hashtags and any personalized versions can help you create a viral campaign or attract more attention to your donation page. Giving Tuesday hashtags receive billions of social media impressions every year. Make sure your organization’s campaign is among them!
There’s more than one popular hashtag your nonprofit can use on #GivingTuesday. There is nothing quite as powerful as a storytelling campaign when it comes to attracting new donors and encouraging existing donors to give.
Ask your donors to share why they support your cause, and then be sure to re-share those stories in your emails and social media posts. (Remember to include a clear call to action so people know where to click and how to do their part.)
Encouraging people to share their personal stories of how your nonprofit helped or changed their lives can significantly impact them. These real-life examples from people they know are the incentives they need to get involved and contribute to a cause they care about.
Collaborating with social media influencers who align with your cause can boost your nonprofit, especially on Giving Tuesday. Influencers (local or national ones) can help your nonprofit spread its message and provide good publicity for the influencer while taking some of the content creation weight off your team’s shoulders.
Popular social media accounts can help spread your message to their followers and generate interest in your Giving Tuesday campaign by creating content they know their followers will like. They can also share about participating in your nonprofit's challenges or Giving Tuesday events and encouraging their followers to donate their time or money.
To create an effective Giving Tuesday email marketing campaign, create a meaningful story that highlights your organization's impact and the campaign's specific needs.
Personalize your emails with engaging subject lines and tailored content to connect with your supporters. Emphasize the limited giving time and offer exclusive matching gift opportunities to create a sense of urgency.
Is there a local business nearby that has a huge Instagram following or enjoys sponsoring nonprofit events? Ask them to collaborate on a community Giving Tuesday campaign for even more impact, reach, resources, and budget.
Reaching out to larger corporations and asking them if they’d like to provide a matching donation can help you attract more donations at specific times of the day on Giving Tuesday or at certain fundraising milestones.
Sure, your nonprofit will still have to provide all the usual perks (visibility, etc.). However, matching donations can provide a great incentive to encourage more people to donate, knowing that their contribution will be doubled.
Peer to peer fundraising is a fantastic way to put the campaign momentum in the hands of your community. You can empower your supporters to fundraise on your behalf when the hype of giving is already high on Giving Tuesday.
You can see great success if you provide supporters with easy-to-use tools like a customizable fundraising page and templates to share with friends and family. Not only can fundraising attract many donations, but it also brings awareness to new potential donors who might not have heard about your peer to peer campaign otherwise.
A peer-to-peer campaign also allows fundraisers to bring powerful storytelling to the forefront of asking others to contribute to a shared goal. It’s an excellent opportunity for supporters who may not have the financial means to give as much as they’d like to turn their passion into action by recruiting the help of others who can come together for a significant impact.
Recurring donations that start on Giving Tuesday are the gifts that keep giving as the new year approaches, and your nonprofit can predict income. More importantly, they foster a commitment from loyal monthly donors ready to make charitable giving a part of their daily routine.
Giving Tuesday is a great time to highlight the long-term impact of recurring gifts. Specifically, how does a commitment to give monthly or annually equate to results your nonprofit can accomplish that one-time gifts can’t guarantee?
Giving challenges have become standard during Giving Tuesday because they work. Challenges encourage people to tap on their friends and family to match their donations or showcase what a community can do when it comes together for a good cause.
The pandemic may be over, but virtual events are here to stay and educate people far and wide about what your cause is up to. Take advantage of online learning and organize virtual events like webinars, panel discussions, or live streams that donors can attend.
Invite experts, beneficiaries, and community leaders to share insights from various lenses and voices throughout the week of Giving Tuesday. Remember that these learning opportunities can also encourage people to give beyond Giving Tuesday.
You can ask for donations during events and record them as on-demand offerings to have and share in the future.
Creating and sharing an annual or impact report as the heart of your Giving Tuesday campaign can make a huge difference—especially in attracting corporate or local business sponsors.
You can get creative with a specific impact report that details how donations from previous Giving Tuesday donations were used as the basis for this year’s campaign. Transparency and accountability build trust and show potential donors the real-world difference their contributions can make.
We hope your wheels are turning about a fresh take on a Giving Tuesday campaign idea and you start envisioning yourself raising money like never before. We've rounded up some of our favorite examples to help you see what these fundraising efforts look like in action and real results from nonprofit organizations.
100 Humanitarians International earned $18,500 with an engaging Giving Tuesday gala. The evening of community and giving invited donors to come together to celebrate with a clear goal: to support families in Kenya.
The organization sold tickets to the gala through Zeffy’s ticketing forms and clearly outlined the fundraiser's purpose, which was to encourage further generosity. Because Zeffy is free to use and doesn’t charge additional transaction fees, 100 Humanitarians International was also able to save $925 that could go back to the cause.
Centraide Outaouais made a big impression with a Giving Tuesday campaign with a simple mission: to raise donations to provide a snowsuit for a needy child. The free donation form they set up through Zeffy helped them raise $19,360, which provided 322 snowsuits at $60 a piece.
Even more, the $968 they saved in fees helped them provide 16 additional snowsuits to the underprivileged youth they serve. A clear goal and visual impact of every donation helped rally community members to make a big difference for the timely winter season on Giving Tuesday.
Kids Outdoor Sports Camp (KOSC) held a donation match challenge for Giving Tuesday. An anonymous donor committed to matching donations of up to $35,000 for scholarships and camp equipment. Every donation dollar was matched, contributing to a fundraising total of $14,800 and $740 saved in fees.
Zeffy’s 100% free forms made it easy to add personalized quotes from past campers and storytelling about how scholarships impact their lives.
Hudson County Complete Streets cleverly combined its Giving Tuesday and End-of-Year Gift campaigns to maximize fundraising during the holiday season. Kicking off on Giving Tuesday, the campaign called on donors to contribute to safer streets with an enticing donation match from a Founding Donors group.
The organization raised $13,112 and saved $655 in fees with Zeffy’s free fundraising platform by using its campaign page to educate supporters and welcome them to join its mission.
Giving Tuesday may be one day, but the effort required to develop a campaign with a full promotional strategy, launch plan, and donor retention process can require all hands on deck. Assembling a designated team to take on specialty roles in addition to their day-to-day work can help you stay organized and feel supported as you execute a new Giving Tuesday idea.
A reliable team distributes the workload and assigns project aspects to the person with the most expertise to make it effective and impactful. Start by identifying critical roles based on your needs, recruiting internal support, or bringing in external specialists to help you execute your vision.
A few roles you may recruit individuals or teams for include:
Once your team is assembled, you can create a collaborative space with clear goals, deadlines, responsibilities, and communication channels. As you assign tasks, consider encouraging creativity and leveraging team members’ strengths to keep morale high.
Most importantly, everyone understands their responsibilities and the campaign’s larger objectives. As you go, review progress and share opportunities to grow along the way, with support from the entire team, to ensure the most successful Giving Tuesday campaign.
With your team in place, you’re ready to start thinking outside of the box on your Giving Tuesday campaign. Getting creative with new ideas starts with knowing what exactly you want to achieve.
Sure, you can start with the basics of clear goals, objectives, and targets for donor acquisition and retention. But, what if you also considered defining your vision for what will make this year’s campaign one no one can forget?
Consider discussing the following questions with your Giving Tuesday team:
True to its roots, everything GivingTuesday makes is free for nonprofits (and anyone really) to use. And nonprofits should use it all. They provide toolkits for your campaign, images, and great ideas for making the most of the day.
Resources include:
Even the most minor head start can make it accessible for any organization to host a successful campaign. This way, a design team, and internal resources aren’t a barrier to participating in the big day of generosity.
One simple yet highly impactful way to showcase your Giving Tuesday campaign is to create a version of your nonprofit’s logo just for Giving Tuesday. This will show supporters that you believe in the good Giving Tuesday is spreading while making it clear that your nonprofit is participating.
Free design software like Canva makes it easy to adapt your logo or add the GivingTuesday logo.
If your donors don’t know your nonprofit will participate in GivingTuesday, how can they support you? This may seem obvious, but it’s all about timing and creating a big splash about your campaign early enough to receive the most attention from new and existing donors.
As early as the end of summer, you can start releasing details about your Giving Tuesday campaign or any unique plans to make a difference as you close out the year. Donors have many options to participate in Giving Tuesday, so making your organization their go-to when it comes time to give helps secure more donations.
We’ll discuss the channels you can use in the ideas below, but for now, here are a few tips for pre-launching your campaign.
You want to share your main Giving Tuesday campaign page to collect as many donations as you can, but be sure to give other options, such as signing up to volunteer, donating items, spreading the word about your charity, or participating in the event.
Having more options to give helps you meet more donors where they are with their preferred actions on Giving Tuesday.
Giving Tuesday is the perfect excuse to update your donation forms. Using these advanced fundraising techniques, you can customize the messaging for each donor and track which platforms bring in the most donations.
Remember that Giving Tuesday was founded on the idea that radical generosity should be a more significant part of our everyday lives. For individuals, families, communities, and businesses, the more we give, the more we inspire others to give.
Yes, the global generosity movement unleashing billions of dollars is impressive for fundraising. But Giving Tuesday also breaks records in terms of hours spent volunteering, the number of participants, and generous acts.
So, although Giving Tuesday is focused on a single day every year (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States), make sure your campaign will encourage people to be radically generous throughout the year—not just on Giving Tuesday. (Maybe campaign for #GivingTuesday to become a local or national holiday.)
Giving Tuesday is a global movement that inspired millions of people to celebrate generosity around the world. Find out what is it and how to make an impact.
Giving Tuesday email templates for your nonprofit's GivingTuesday campaign.