Your essential Giving Tuesday checklist for year-end success

Giving Tuesday is more than another day on the calendar. It’s a global generosity movement that helps nonprofits boost their year-end fundraising efforts. As one of the most important giving days of the year, it offers the chance to connect with new supporters, strengthen relationships with donors, and make a big impact. To make the most of this opportunity, you’ll need a clear plan that covers every step.

This Giving Tuesday checklist will help you keep things organized and run your fundraising campaigns smoothly. We’ll walk through how to plan, execute, and follow up to make sure you get the best results.

Why a Giving Tuesday checklist matters

Running a successful Giving Tuesday campaign takes careful planning and thoughtful execution. A well-thought-out checklist keeps your team focused on the most important tasks, like engaging donors and ensuring long-term success.

Key benefits:

• Campaign organization and preparedness: Ensure you stay on track and don’t miss any opportunities with a clear plan.
• Opportunities to raise more money: Use proven strategies to make the most of Giving Tuesday and increase your impact.
• Better team collaboration: Help your team stay effective and on the same page with clear timelines and assigned roles.

Plan your campaign (January to April)

The earliest stages of planning are about looking back before you move forward. Use this time to review past performance, brainstorm new ideas, and lay the groundwork for a creative and successful campaign.

Follow through from last year

Review your previous Giving Tuesday campaigns to find out what worked well and what needs improvement. A campaign retrospective is a great way to capture insights while they’re still fresh.

• Hold a team meeting: Invite key stakeholders, including board members, to analyze last year’s results and identify areas for improvement. Discuss successes, challenges, and key metrics from each functional group.
• Nurture supporter relationships: Compile lists of new, returning, and major donors, as well as any peer-to-peer fundraising participants. Thank them for their support, share the results of your campaign, and show them the impact of their contributions.
• Use reporting tools: Review donor behavior, fundraising trends, and engagement metrics to inform your new strategy. GoFundMe Pro’s campaign reporting tools can help you gather these valuable insights.

Begin internal planning

With insights from your retrospective, it’s time to plan for the upcoming campaign:

• Determine your main goal: Decide on the primary objective for this year’s campaign. Is it to acquire new donors, raise a specific fundraising goal, or increase awareness?
• Set your budget: Outline the resources you’ll need for marketing, advertising, and other campaign activities.
• Create a source-of-truth document: Prepare a central document where all campaign-related information, from goals to creative briefs, will live. This keeps everyone aligned.
• Organize a creative brainstorm: Ask your team to come prepared with pitches and ideas. Discuss how you can stand out, how to update branding, and how to improve the user experience for donors.

Secure sponsorships early

Corporate sponsors can expand your campaign’s reach and boost funding. The sooner you start building these relationships, the better your chances of securing a matching gift, which is a powerful incentive for donors. Here’s how to get started:

• Identify leads: Look for potential sponsors through staff connections, board members, and volunteers. Create a pipeline for cold outreach as well.
• Create a sponsorship package: Approach potential sponsors with a strong proposal that explains the benefits of partnering with your nonprofit.
• Use the right tools: Enhance your sponsorship options to strengthen existing partnerships, build new ones, and increase revenue with GoFundMe Pro’s corporate giving software.

Execute your strategy (May to August)

With your plan in place, it’s time to start building the core components of your campaign. This phase is all about creating your assets and defining your communication flow.

Define your campaign narrative

Every great campaign starts with a compelling story. Focus on creating an emotional connection by telling a story that reflects your nonprofit’s mission:

• Write a creative brief: Get your team on the same page about the campaign’s story, name, branding elements, and colors. Develop clear messaging that resonates with your audience.
• Collect design assets: Gather the images, videos, and logos you’ll need for your donation page and promotional materials. Consider creating a toolkit for easy access and using a platform like GoFundMe Pro that saves branded assets for you.

Plan your communication strategy

Clear and consistent communication builds excitement. Planning your outreach across email, social media, and other channels your audience uses helps you do just that:

• Social media: In a collaborative report with GoFundMe, we found that 41% of Gen Z respondents said that social media content has motivated them to research or donate to a cause. Focus on the platforms your audience uses most, including Meta and LinkedIn. Once you hone in on the right channels, develop a content calendar with countdown posts, success stories, and engaging visuals. Then, plan to write some copy closer to the launch date and include relevant hashtags to keep things timely.
• Email campaigns: Email is still a winning strategy for communication with audiences. Segment your email list to send more personalized messages and determine the right frequency for sending. Tools like GoFundMe Pro’s email integrations can make this process easier. And remember to include a clear call to action in every email.

Build a user-friendly fundraising page

Your donation page is the heart of your campaign. It should be easy to use, visually appealing, and optimized for mobile devices:

• Prepare your content: Gather your campaign name, fundraising goal, featured media, and text for the About section and buttons.
• Build your page: Use GoFundMe Pro to help you launch polished, intuitive pages in minutes with custom campaign templates and optimize them for conversion with Intelligence Ask Amounts based on your goals.
• Test everything: Be sure to thoroughly test all links, emails, and social media posts before you launch to ensure a smooth experience for your supporters.

Launch your campaign (September to December)

You’re in the homestretch. This final phase is about launching your campaign, engaging your audience in real time, and transitioning smoothly into your year-end efforts.

Soft launch your campaign

Start your campaign with a smaller group of loyal supporters and stakeholders to build early momentum:

• Identify your group: Target top-tier donors, repeat donors, dedicated volunteers, board members, and staff.
• Ask for early support: Encourage this group to donate first and share the campaign within their networks. This helps build valuable social proof before the public launch. 

Draft and schedule social media content

With your strategy set, begin writing and scheduling your social media posts:

• Tailor your content: Customize your message for each platform. Include posts for an early morning kickoff, inspirational stories, and beneficiary features.
• Engage beyond Giving Tuesday: Write copy that keeps your supporters engaged into the year-end giving season and beyond. Consider text messages for urgent appeals.
• Use social sharing features: Make it easy for supporters to spread the word with GoFundMe Pro’s built-in social sharing tools.

Hard launch your campaign

Notify your entire community that your Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign is live:

• Share key details: Inform everyone about your fundraising goal, the impact it’ll have, matching gift periods, and special incentives.
• Recognize sponsors: Give a shoutout to any important sponsors supporting your campaign.

Plan your Giving Tuesday headquarters

Designate a central space, physical or virtual, for your team to manage the big day’s activities in real time:

• Assemble your team: Ensure everyone knows their role for the day, from social media posting and email support to tracking progress updates.
• Coordinate logistics: Set a defined start and end time, and if you’re in person, arrange for meals and snacks to keep energy levels high. Consider a last-minute webinar for volunteers.

Make the most impact on Giving Tuesday

Keep the excitement going throughout the day with live updates and interactive features:

• Engage in real time: Use progress bars to show how close you are to your goal. Have your team ready to respond to questions and comments on social media.
• Encourage last-minute donations: Create urgency during the final hours with countdown timers and reminders about matching gift deadlines. Optimize your call to action.

Sustain momentum

When the day of giving ends, follow up to retain donors and set the stage for future success.

Follow up and thank donors

Showing gratitude is crucial for building strong, lasting relationships with your supporters:

• Send personalized thank-you messages: Show donors the impact of their contributions. This increases the likelihood they’ll share their experience and give again. GoFundMe Pro’s new studio templates can help you get a jump start with relevant, branded emails. 
• Automate your gratitude: Save time by using GoFundMe Pro’s automated thank-you notes to ensure every donor feels appreciated. Consider integrating these with your CRM platform.

Transition to year-end campaigns

Giving Tuesday is just the start of the holiday giving season. Shift your focus smoothly to year-end fundraising to keep supporters engaged:

• Repurpose your campaign: Update your Giving Tuesday page with a new hero image and copy that aligns with holiday giving themes.
• Make a hard ask: Encourage your Giving Tuesday supporters to recommit for your year-end donation page.

Analyze campaign metrics and repeat

Reviewing your results is essential for improving future efforts:

• Look at key metrics: Analyze donor retention, average gift size, and social media engagement. Track your milestones.
• Generate actionable insights: Use GoFundMe Pro’s analytics tools to plan for your next campaign. After your year-end push, it’s time to go back to step one and prepare for another great year. This continuous cycle ensures year-round success for your nonprofit.

Elevate your year-end fundraising

Giving Tuesday can set the tone for a successful year-end giving season. By following this detailed checklist and using a leading fundraising platform like GoFundMe Pro, you can streamline your process, engage more donors, and maximize your results.

Start planning today with our suite of features, designed to help nonprofits like yours reach new fundraising heights. From customizable campaign pages to real-time analytics, everything you need for a record-breaking Giving Tuesday is only a click away.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien