What Is GivingTuesday?
What Is GivingTuesday?
GivingTuesday 2025 is on December 2 and will be here before you know it.
Doesn’t it seem like the major holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year?
Thankfully, charitable giving rises alongside the holiday spirit. In fact, more charitable donations are made at the end of the year than any other time.
One way to kickstart the season of giving is by participating in GivingTuesday fundraising.
This annual “Global Day of Giving” event takes place on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving (this year it’s December 2 which might feel late but is sneaking up fast) and has helped to amplify year-end fundraising efforts for nonprofits and charitable causes since 2012.
But the beginnings of this international day of giving were quite humble. Just thirteen years ago, the 92 Street Y in NYC and the United Nations Foundation considered how they could cut through all the noise of Black Friday and bring back the spirit of giving. What started out as a simple idea quickly transformed into what is now GivingTuesday.
It’s never too early to start planning how your nonprofit or cause can get in on all the energy, excitement, and benefits of the big day.
Download Your Free 2025 Year-End & GivingTuesday Fundraising Toolkit
1. Lay the Groundwork Today for a Powerful GivingTuesday
People don’t just give because they’re asked to. They give because they’re motivated by the story of a friend, a video you post on social media, or the client spotlight in your e-newsletter. Giving is the result of inspiration, empathy, and connection.
So start your GivingTuesday planning by considering who you want to inspire and how you want to do so. Data from GivingTuesday 2024 reveals that there was a 16% increase in giving from 2023. Globally, young people are far more active givers and since donating online is the most common way for people to give on GivingTuesday, especially for the younger generations, it’s a good idea to focus on your online audience. Think about your email lists, your social media followers, and your partner organizations.
So what does GivingTuesday planning look like, exactly?
The best way to plan this giving day is to think about it as you would any other fundraising campaign. It’s not just a 24-hour event (even if it only “runs” that long). Instead, it’s an opportunity for storytelling, donor cultivation, supporter engagement, and a way to build awareness around your organization and mission. Follow these fundraising plan best practices, including:
- Set a goal based on your organization’s needs and using SMART goal criteria
- Note your go-to strategies for success (such as a particular type of fundraising campaign, ideal length of the campaign, etc.)
- Size-up your resources, including staff support and budget
- Create a fundraising site (create your free campaign site with CauseVox here)
- Create a thorough plan that addresses:
- Campaign audience and the message that will best resonate with them
- Expenses
- Goal
- Any additional items of note
New Vocations used CauseVox to create their GivingTuesday fundraising site. You can too. Get started here.
Spur Local raised over $1 million dollars on GivingTuesday with CauseVox
Action Items:
- Decide if you’re integrating your GivingTuesday message into an established year-end campaign, or if GivingTuesday will be a standalone campaign (we recommend thinking about them in tandem at the very least)
- Establish a fundraising goal and a thorough fundraising plan
- Create your dedicated GivingTuesday donation page
Learn more about how you can create your GivingTuesday campaign site for free with CauseVox
2. Use GivingTuesday Campaign Resources
GivingTuesday is known for its extensive set of resources to help nonprofits plan for the big day, whether you started thinking about the campaign in January or October.
They have a huge amount of resources, including key messages, a toolkit, and data from years past. The data they collected last year showed that in 2024, individual charitable giving in the US grew by roughly 6.3%, alongside increases in both corporate and foundation contributions. For the first time in three years, overall giving rose faster than inflation—a promising sign for the nonprofit sector.
CauseVox is here to help, too. With CauseVox’s easy-to-use fundraising tools and CRM, you won’t have to waste any precious year-end time and effort on unnecessary admin tasks. You’ll streamline your fundraising, eliminating redundant data transfers and complicated reporting.
Here are a few ways to take advantage of the tools available to you:
- CauseVox’s Blog + Resources: In the last few years there has been an increase in giving day campaigns. Thus, there’s no shortage of resources to help you plan your own. CauseVox’s complete guide to GivingTuesday is a great place to start.
- CauseVox fundraising platform: You can use our fundraising platform to easily create a GivingTuesday fundraising site that is personalized and designed for your organization. This helps you build trust and stand out from other campaigns on GivingTuesday. You can get started for free here.
- GivingTuesday Website: Visit GivingTuesday.org, which is chock-full of resources, results from previous years, case studies, and more. They also regularly update their blog with examples from other organizations that participated in GivingTuesday, general announcements, and best practices.
- Your Organization’s Community: Often, your best resource is your current base of donors and other supporters. They can help spread the word that you’re participating in GivingTuesday and are most likely to donate on the big day. Ask them to share why they plan to support you on GivingTuesday on social media, and then use those stories as inspiration and a call to action to rally others to give.
Associate Alumnae of Douglas College had a successful GivingTuesday campaign using CauseVox. They also incorporated impactful stories on their campaign page that allows donors to see their impact.
Action Items:
- Set a date to start talking to your community about GivingTuesday so they can help you reach your goals.
- Download CauseVox’s free Complete Year-End & GivingTuesday Fundraising Toolkit
- Read up on successful GivingTuesday campaigns for ideas and inspiration.
- Sign-up to receive GivingTuesday updates and information from GivingTuesday.org.
- Finalize your dedicated GivingTuesday fundraiser site
- Select stories that you will incorporate into your campaign
3. Make Your GivingTuesday Campaign Unforgettable
GivingTuesday is a great opportunity to test out new fundraising techniques, messaging, and tools. Since most of the action is centered one day and one campaign, you can try something new without the risk of a long-term commitment.
Over the years, we’ve learned that GivingTuesday draws a notable increase in donations and online engagement, so it’s worth trying something different such as using CauseVox to launch a peer-to-peer fundraiser to expand your donor base and recruit more supporters.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to launch a new website the same day or try something so out of the box that you’re setting yourself up for failure. Put all of your ideas on the table and then work with your team to figure out which ones are best for a day like GivingTuesday.
Consider one or more of these different techniques:
- Get a matching grant from a partner or major donor. Campaigns with matching grants work extremely well for short timelines. Plus, it’s publicity for both your campaign and the sponsor. Jessica from the Adult Congenital Heart Association found a match made a big difference in her campaign:
“Prior to this, like most organizations, we tried to drive GivingTuesday donations through our social media channels, but did not see the momentum we were able to capture with the added match and a single channel to donate,” she says. - Do something fun and different on social media such as trying out a new short video trend from Tik Tok, utilizing Instagram stories, making updates on creating a special GivingTuesday hashtag for your campaign, or going LIVE on Facebook throughout the day.
CUP invited donors to get involved in many ways, including having their employer match their donation. People love to give towards a goal, especially when they know their gift has double the impact.
Get started with CauseVox here.
- Integrate a virtual event for extra engagement, such as a walk-a-thon, growing a mustache, or giving up a meal. In recent years, nonprofits have been getting more creative than ever with virtual events, and it’s a great time for you to try it out.
- Focus on your donors and use the day to show them why they should give during the holiday season. In other words, make use of the GivingTuesday concept and show your community some love!
- Incorporate GivingTuesday into your year-end fundraising campaign to kick it off with a bang!
- Think about leveraging partnerships. Even if local businesses or organizations can’t make a monetary gift, you can still work together to raise awareness. In 2024, Spur Local hosted a Give Local campaign, in which they highlighted over 200 local nonprofits and facilitated over $1.1 million dollars in donations. Getting a shout out from another organization goes a long way.
Irish Immigration Pastoral Center highlighted a powerful video with client testimonies on their campaign page which helped them raise over $100k!
Neil Squire used donation tiers highlighting the impact each gift has, making it clear to supporters exactly how their donation creates meaningful change.
Final Action Items:
- Hold a brainstorming session with your team. Create a list of ways to add a touch of excitement to the campaign.
- Talk to corporate partners and major donors early on about any potential matching gifts.
- Consider reusing a technique from a previous marketing or fundraising campaign and kicking it up a notch.
Raise More On GivingTuesday With CauseVox
With CauseVox, launching your GivingTuesday campaign doesn’t have to be complicated. You’ll have everything you need to create a branded, mobile-friendly campaign that attracts more donors and inspires more giving, without the extra stress.
This GivingTuesday, set yourself up for your biggest impact yet. Ready to get started?
