Hi Reader,

Friends at a relief organization once ran a Giving Tuesday campaign with no ask at all. They simply thanked their donors. So many donors appreciated the gratitude that the campaign still raised a considerable amount of money.

We tried the same idea at Serving Orphans Worldwide.

It flopped. People didn't give.

Same idea, different donors, opposite result. It taught me something I keep relearning: your donor audience is unique. What works for another nonprofit's donors may do nothing for yours. A great idea from somewhere else is a hypothesis to test, not a plan.

That's on my mind this week because Giving Tuesday is about six weeks away, on December 1. Most of us are deep in planning the day itself. Almost nobody is planning December 2.

THE BIG IDEA

Here's how Giving Tuesday goes in a lot of shops. You plan for weeks. The emails go out, the social posts go up, maybe there's a match. Gifts come in. The team celebrates.

Then December 2 arrives, and the Giving Tuesday donors quietly get poured into the year-end file. They get a receipt. A week or two later, they get the year-end appeal, written for everyone, asking them to give again. For a lot of them, that's the second message they've ever received from you. And it's another ask.

That's a waste, because Giving Tuesday donors are worth keeping. They come back at a higher rate than the average donor (more on that in One Number below). But "worth keeping" isn't the same as "kept." Somebody has to do the keeping.

Giving Tuesday donors don't need a different appeal. They need a different path.

Many of them are first-time donors. They found you through a friend's post, a match, or the energy of the day. They don't know you yet. If the first thing after the receipt is another request, you've told them this relationship is a transaction.

Picture it. Say 40 people give on Giving Tuesday, and 25 of them are new to you. On December 10, your year-end email goes to the whole file: "Before the year ends, will you give?" To your loyal donors, that's normal. To someone who gave nine days ago and hasn't heard a word since the receipt, it reads like you weren't paying attention.

So build the path now, while you still have time. Before December 1, decide three things: how you'll tag Giving Tuesday donors so you can find them later, what thank-you they get and how fast, and what they'll see in your December appeals.

Then don't assume you got it right. That's the lesson from the World Relief story. Whatever you choose, measure it on your own donors. In January, check that every one of this year's Giving Tuesday donors heard from you. Next fall, check how many gave again. Your number, not somebody else's benchmark, tells you what's working.

3 THINGS TO TRY

TRY THIS: Create a "Giving Tuesday 2026" tag or appeal code in your database this week. Make sure every December 1 gift gets it, including gifts that come through a Facebook fundraiser or a peer-to-peer page.

TRY THIS: Write your Giving Tuesday thank-you now and schedule it to go out within 48 hours. Name the day, say what the gift does, and don't ask for anything.

TRY THIS: Give your first-time Giving Tuesday donors their own version of your first December appeal, one that opens by thanking them for their Giving Tuesday gift. If your list is big enough, send half that version and half the standard appeal, and compare the results.

GO DEEPER

If you want the whole season mapped out, not just Giving Tuesday, take a look at Finish Strong: The 90-Day Year-End Fundraising Course. You build your complete year-end campaign plan, step by step, on a 13-week calendar from October 1 to December 31: Giving Tuesday, the December cadence, the final 72 hours, thanking every gift within 48 hours, and reporting back to donors in January. Thirty short video lessons walk you through the Finish Strong workbook, with ready-to-use tools, AI prompts, and a real example campaign to follow. If you'd rather run December from a plan than from a scramble, take a look at Finish Strong.

STEAL THIS

A December 2 thank-you email for everyone who gave on Giving Tuesday:

Subject: You showed up yesterday

[First name],

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday, and you chose to give generously to [organization]. Thank you.

Here's what your gift is doing: [one specific thing a gift like theirs makes possible, in one sentence].

In January, I'll send you a short update to show you what happened. You are making a life-changing difference! Thank you for supporting this vital work.

Grateful,

[Your name]

When to use it: send it within 48 hours of Giving Tuesday. Then keep the promise in the last line, because the January update is where a first gift starts turning into a second one.

ONE NUMBER

65%: the share of Giving Tuesday donors who made a repeat gift in 2024, compared with 52% of all donors, according to the Blackbaud Institute and GivingTuesday.

Giving Tuesday donors aren't one-and-done by nature. Whether yours come back depends a lot on what happens after December 1.

WORTH YOUR TIME

​Should Your Small Nonprofit Even Do GivingTuesday? If you're still on the fence about the day itself, this walks through the tradeoffs, including the risk of pulling gifts away from December 31. Read it before you commit your staff's time.

​GivingTuesday Special Report (Blackbaud Institute) The source for this week's number. It also breaks down repeat giving by generation, which helps if you're deciding who gets a phone call and who gets an email.

​GivingTuesday 2025 Results Americans gave $4.0 billion on Giving Tuesday last year. That means your donors heard from a lot of organizations that day. The follow-up is where you get to stand out.

ONE QUESTION

What do your Giving Tuesday donors hear from you between December 2 and December 31? Hit reply and tell me.

See you Tuesday,

Jeremy Reis

P.S. Finish Strong includes a Giving Tuesday plan, a 48-hour thank-you routine, and a January report-back, so your new donors hear from you the right way this year. It's $149, and you can see the details here.