To run a Giving Tuesday campaign, pick one goal tied to one program and build a giving page that makes donating quick. Line up a match and early gifts before the day starts, and promote the campaign in the week leading up to it. On Giving Tuesday, post updates through the day, then thank every donor within 24 hours.
Giving Tuesday falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so most of your planning happens in October and early November. This guide starts with a video on setting up your fundraiser. After that, it covers each step of the campaign, a full outreach timeline, sample plans for different groups and a checklist you can work from.
👉 If you’re still deciding what kind of campaign to run, start with these Giving Tuesday ideas.
How to Set Up a Giving Tuesday Fundraiser
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Set your goal, build your giving page and plan every message from the first save-the-date to the last thank-you.
Written steps:
From your dashboard, select Create, then Fundraisers, then Use Template. Search “Giving Tuesday” and choose the Giving Tuesday peer-to-peer template.
Find your new page under the Payments Pages tab and select Edit. Swap in your banner, title, description, contact name and end date.
Turn on the fundraising goal and progress bar, and choose whether to show a donor feed or leaderboard. Customize the donate button text and add answers to common donor questions.
On the Participant Options tab, decide whether supporters can create their own fundraising pages. If they can, write a welcome email and choose what they’re allowed to customize.
On the Donation tab, set suggested donation amounts, allow general donations, add any questions for donors and write a custom thank-you receipt.
On the Settings tab, choose payment methods and decide whether donors can cover transaction fees.
Preview your page and select Publish.
Add participants or share a link so they can register themselves, set up teams if you want them, and share your page by link, on Facebook, with a website button or with a QR code.
Select Manage to track progress and pull reports.
The rest of this guide covers the decisions behind each step. That includes what goal to set, what to write, who to ask first and when to send each message.
Set One Goal Tied to One Program
A good Giving Tuesday goal is specific enough to picture and small enough to reach. “Help us raise $5,000 to stock our pantry for the winter” gives people a clear reason to give. “Support our mission” doesn’t.
Start with a real number. If you ran a Giving Tuesday campaign last year, use that total plus 10% to 20%. If this is your first one, estimate how many people will give and multiply by a typical gift. For example, 80 donors giving $40 each comes to $3,200. A goal you hit by 8 p.m. does more for next year than a big goal you miss by half.
Then tie the goal to one program and translate it into things people can picture. Split it into four checkpoints so you have something new to announce as you go. If $5,000 stocks the pantry for the winter, then $1,250 covers December. Each checkpoint gives you a reason to post and gives donors proof that their gifts are adding up.
Start from the Giving Tuesday template
The SignUpGenius Giving Tuesday template is built as a peer-to-peer campaign, with a banner, goal, donate button, suggested amounts and an FAQ already filled in. For a donation-only campaign, leave participant registration off and allow general donations. Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers is included on every plan, including Free.
Most people will open your page on a phone, often between other things. Give them what they need to decide in under a minute, then make giving take a few taps.
Write a title that names the result. “Fill the Pantry for Winter” tells people what their money does. “Giving Tuesday 2026 Campaign” doesn’t, and you’ll have to change it next year. Keep the title under eight words so it doesn’t wrap on a phone screen.
Tell one short story. Pick one person or moment your program helped, and describe it in three or four sentences. Then connect it to the goal: “This winter, $5,000 means 60 more families like Maria’s get groceries every week.” One clear story does more than a paragraph of statistics.
Set suggested amounts tied to real costs. Offer three or four amounts, and name what each one covers, like $25 for a week of snacks or $100 for a family’s groceries. Make the middle amount the one you most want people to choose, since many donors pick the middle option. Leave an open amount for people who want to give more or less.
Answer donor questions before they ask. Add short answers to the questions people wonder about but rarely email: how the money will be used, what happens if you go past the goal and how to help without donating. Clear answers remove the reasons people hesitate. It also saves you from answering the same questions all day on Giving Tuesday.
Change the button text. “Donate” works, but text tied to your cause, like “Stock the Pantry” or “Make a Difference,” reminds people why they’re clicking. Keep it to three words or fewer.
Ask donors to cover fees, and say why. Many donors will add a little to cover transaction costs if you ask. Explain in one sentence that it puts more of their gift toward the cause. Then thank them for the extra help.
Genius Tip
Keep your fee message short and specific: "Covering the fee means every dollar of your gift goes to the pantry. Thank you for the extra help." A message with a concrete reason works better than a bare checkbox.
Recruit Fundraisers and Teams
If you’re running a peer-to-peer campaign, your fundraisers do most of the asking. Recruit them three to four weeks out, so they have time to set up their pages before the week of Giving Tuesday.
Invite people one at a time. A personal text or call gets far more yeses than a group email. Ask your board, your most active volunteers and a few longtime donors first. Tell each person why you thought of them, and ask them to raise a specific amount, like $250.
Group fundraisers into teams people already belong to. For a school, that might be grade levels or classrooms. For a nonprofit, it could be board members, program volunteers and staff. Teams give people someone to work with and a friendly rivalry to keep them going during the day.
Give every fundraiser a starter kit. Send a short page message they can copy, a photo they can use and three ready-to-send texts: one for the morning, one for midday and one for the final hour. Most people want to help but don’t know what to say. These tips on what to write on a personal fundraising page make a good handout.
Ask fundraisers to give first. A fundraiser who gives $20 to their own page can honestly say, “I already gave, will you join me?” A page that starts at $0 looks like nobody has given yet. Ask everyone to make their first gift the day before Giving Tuesday.
Line Up a Match and Early Gifts
The first few hours set the tone for the whole day. A campaign that opens at 25% of its goal looks like it can win. One that opens at zero looks like nobody has given yet. Two moves make the difference.
First, line up a match by early November. Ask a major donor, a board member or a local business to match gifts up to a set amount. A business often agrees because it gets mentioned in every post. Consider tying the match to the number of donors instead of dollars, like $1,000 unlocked once 50 people give. That way a $5 gift matters as much as a $500 gift.
Second, ask your board, staff and closest supporters to give the day before. Then you can open your Tuesday morning email with real momentum: “We’re already at $1,400 of our $5,000 goal.” Early gifts also help with your donor feed, since people are more likely to give when they see others giving.
Plan Your Outreach Timeline
Plan every message before November starts, so on Giving Tuesday you’re sending and posting, not writing. Use this schedule as a starting point and adjust it to your group’s size.
When
Channel
What to send
3 weeks out
Email
Save the date with your goal and what it funds
Week before
Social
One short impact story per day
Monday before
Email and social
"Tomorrow is the day" with the link and any match
Tuesday morning
Email, social and text
The ask, the goal, the head start and the link
Tuesday midday
Social
Progress update and how much match is left
Tuesday evening
Email and social
Final push with the hours left
Wednesday
Email
Thank-you note with the final total
Keep each email to three short paragraphs: what you’re raising money for, what each gift does and the link. Put the link near the top and again at the bottom. For help with the wording, see how to write a fundraising letter that inspires action. Schedule your Tuesday morning email to land before 8 a.m. local time, so it’s waiting when people check their phones.
Run the Day Itself
Giving Tuesday goes faster with a plan for who does what. Pick one person to watch the page and post updates, one to answer messages and, for a peer-to-peer campaign, one to check in with fundraisers. In a small group, one person can do two of these jobs. Nobody should be doing all three.
Post an update every two to three hours. Share how much is left in plain terms: “$640 to go, that’s 16 more families fed this week.” Mix in a photo from your work that day, so donors can see the program their money is funding. Regular updates give people who saw your morning post a reason to come back.
Announce each checkpoint as you hit it. When you reach 25%, 50% and 75%, post what that amount covers. Tag your match partner if you have one, and say how much match is left. Each checkpoint shows the campaign is working.
Nudge fundraisers at midday. Send fundraisers a quick text with the current total and the team standings. Remind them to send their midday message. This is the point in the day where most fundraisers stop asking unless someone reminds them.
Make the final push count. In the last three hours, post the time left and the dollars left together. “Three hours and $900 to go” makes it clear why giving now matters. Send your last email about two hours before midnight.
Thank people while the day is still going. Thank donors on social as gifts come in, using first names only if they’ve said that’s OK. Watching others get thanked makes it more likely that people who haven’t given yet will.
Thank Donors and Follow Up
Your thank-you messages decide whether a Giving Tuesday donor gives again. Treat follow-up as part of the campaign.
Send a receipt that sounds like a person. Your automatic receipt is the first thing every donor sees after giving. Write it like a short note: thank them, say what their gift will do and tell them when they’ll hear from you next. Skip the formal language and sign it with a real name.
Call or text first-time donors that evening. Have two volunteers reach out to every first-time donor before 8 p.m. Keep it to under two minutes: thank them by name, say what the gift does and don’t ask for anything. Donors who get a personal thank-you right away are more likely to give again.
Share the final total the next morning. Send one email and one post with the total, the number of donors and a thank-you to your match partner and fundraisers. If you went past the goal, say what the extra money will do. If you came up short, share what you did raise and how you’ll still use it.
Show the results within a month. Send a photo and two sentences showing what the money paid for, like full pantry shelves or a new set of books. Most groups skip this step. Donors remember the ones that don’t, and they’re the first to give the following year.
Invite donors to do more. Some donors want to help in other ways too. A short question on your giving page about volunteering gives you a list of people to invite to your next service day or event.
Genius Tip
Add a donor question like "Would you like to hear about volunteer opportunities?" to your SignUpGenius fundraiser, then write a custom thank-you receipt that names what the gift does. You'll finish Giving Tuesday with a list of donors who want to stay involved.
Pick one goal tied to one program, and build a giving page with a short story and suggested amounts. Line up a match and early gifts before the day starts. Promote the campaign the week before, post updates throughout Giving Tuesday and thank every donor within 24 hours. SignUpGenius has a Giving Tuesday template that gets your page set up quickly.
How far ahead should I start planning my Giving Tuesday campaign?
Start six to eight weeks before Giving Tuesday. That gives you time to set a goal, line up a match, recruit fundraisers and write your emails and posts. If you’re starting later, a donation-only page with a match can still come together in a week or two.
Can I run a Giving Tuesday campaign on Facebook?
Yes. You can share your campaign on Facebook, and Facebook also has its own fundraising tools. A SignUpGenius fundraiser can be shared to Facebook directly, and it keeps every gift, donor and report on one page. That makes it easier to track totals and thank donors across email, text and social.
Do I need participants, or can I run a donation-only Giving Tuesday campaign?
You can run a donation-only campaign. Peer-to-peer campaigns reach more people, but a single giving page with a match works well for small teams. In SignUpGenius, leave participant registration off and allow general donations, and your fundraiser works as one shared giving page.
What’s a good fundraising goal for my first Giving Tuesday campaign?
Estimate how many people will give and multiply by a typical gift. For example, 80 donors giving $40 each is $3,200. Pick a goal you can reach by evening rather than one you’ll miss by half. Next year, set your goal 10% to 20% above this year’s total.
Should I ask donors to cover transaction fees?
Yes, as an option. Many donors will add a little to cover fees if you explain that it puts more of their gift toward the cause. SignUpGenius Fundraisers lets you offer fee coverage at checkout and add your own short message explaining why it helps.
Giving Tuesday Ideas for Nonprofits, Schools and Groups
Campaign formats and group-specific ideas to help you choose the right Giving Tuesday campaign.
