9 Steps to Maximize Giving Tuesday with Nonprofit Crowdfunding

Since 2012, GivingTuesday has inspired donors around the world and infused the busy year-end season with a spirit of generosity, connection, and care. It’s one of the single most important fundraising days of the year—but it’s also an opportunity to deepen donor engagement and establish new relationships that last well beyond just one day. 

Launching a stand-out Giving Tuesday campaign can be hard work for any nonprofit, no matter the size. The good news? You already have a dedicated community of supporters, and Giving Tuesday is the perfect time to enlist them as ambassadors for your cause.

With nonprofit crowdfunding, your organization boosts its fundraising potential by tapping into the networks of your existing and engaged supporters. Whether they’re longtime donors, board members, volunteers, or participants in your organization, they already believe in your mission—and when they rally others to join them, your impact multiplies. 

Creating a successful crowdfunding campaign doesn’t have to be complicated. With a compelling story, a clear goal, and a consistent outreach strategy, you can make it easy for your supporters to advocate for your mission and inspire generosity at year-end. Read on to find out how.

Make your Giving Tuesday fundraising plan

An effective crowdfunding campaign should complement your larger year-end fundraising efforts. That means that before you can call in your ambassadors, you need to establish cohesion across your Giving Tuesday campaign as a whole: theme and messaging, fundraising goals, and multichannel outreach. What story do you want to tell about the work you do? What will “success” look like for your organization? How will donors see and feel their impact? As you lay the groundwork for crowdfunding success, be sure to consider the following fundamentals.

1) Tell an impactful story

Focus on storytelling that illustrates the purpose of your campaign and makes an emotional appeal to donors. Make it specific and personal. The same goes for your call to action: it should be eye-catching, concise, and impact-driven. 

For instance, if your nonprofit organization focuses on hunger alleviation, your campaign might highlight the impact stories of two or three beneficiaries (with the appropriate consent) and communicate exactly how many individuals would benefit from a gift to your campaign. 

Example: Join our mission to provide warm meals to 300 families in need this winter.

2) Set actionable goals

Within your broader Giving Tuesday campaign, set a specific crowdfunding goal. Choose an amount that’s attainable but still inspires urgency and participation (and even some friendly competition among your ambassadors). 

Example: We aim to raise $10,000 in 24 hours through crowdfunding alone.

Determine the key metrics you’ll use to measure crowdfunding success, and use data insights from your nonprofit CRM to track performance and improve future campaigns.

Pro tip: Create a custom campaign dashboard in your nonprofit CRM to track progress-to-goal in real time and send automatic updates and alerts to staff throughout the day.
Enhance your Giving Tuesday insights with DonorPerfect custom reports >>

3) Leverage a matching gift challenge

A matching gift is one of the most effective motivators of donor generosity. In fact, campaigns that mention a matching gift opportunity see a 71% increase in their donor response rate and a 51% increase in average donation size! Partner with a major donor, foundation, or corporate sponsor to offer a match for all donations up to a certain amount. In your campaign materials, emphasize that the value of a donor’s contribution will be doubled if they give before the campaign deadline.

4) Choose the right fundraising platform

Set up your crowdfunding campaign on a platform that is easy to share and simple for both fundraisers and their donors to navigate. Research your options and determine what would work best for your organization’s needs. If your nonprofit CRM has its own built-in crowdfunding features, that’s a great place to start—it’ll save you time and resources in the long run.

Looking to upgrade your nonprofit CRM?

Selecting the right fundraising software can be a difficult—but critically important—decision for any nonprofit. With How to Choose the Best Nonprofit CRM: Your 10-Step Checklist, get expert guidance to help your organization make the right choice with confidence.

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Add suggested giving amounts to your online donation form, and make them specific to your mission. For example:

• $25 – one week of meals for a family facing food insecurity
• $100 – one month of shelter for a foster animal in need of a good home
• $250 – school supplies for a classroom for one year

When your Giving Tuesday donation page provides more than abstract numbers, ambassadors can more confidently communicate organizational needs, and donors can clearly visualize the impact their gift will have.

Capture donor data with integrated donation forms.

With DonorPerfect, all of your gift data lives in one place and syncs directly with your nonprofit CRM. Enjoy full control over the branding and design of donation pages, real-time visibility into campaign performance, and seamless integration with your year-end fundraising reports.

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Launch your crowdfunding campaign

Once you have a clear Giving Tuesday plan in place, you’re ready to enlist the aid of your most engaged and dedicated supporters. The key to a strong crowdfunding campaign is consistency: you must be thoughtful in determining the individuals or groups who will join your campaign, provide them with the coaching and resources they need to be effective fundraisers, and keep them motivated throughout the day.

5) Discover your nonprofit ambassadors

Who are your most dedicated supporters? While the answer may be different for every nonprofit organization, there are a few groups you can probably identify quickly. These are the people who consistently show up for your mission: your board members, volunteers, and—if you’re a participant-based organization—your active members. With a deep personal connection to your nonprofit and its impact, these folks are already primed to share your story and invite others to support your cause.

Next, dive into your nonprofit CRM to expand your circle of ambassadors. These may include major donors, but they’ll more likely be your long-term or most frequently engaged donors. Consider targeting the following groups:

• Monthly and recurring donors
• Repeat year-end donors
• Repeat attendees within the last year

Pro tip: Don’t forget your corporate partners! Nonprofit crowdfunding campaigns are popular opportunities for employee engagement. Invite your corporate partners to support your campaign by rallying teams to participate—and even by providing a matching gift as an additional incentive.

Once you’ve determined your segments, draft a personalized email for each group that announces your Giving Tuesday campaign, invites them to join your fundraising efforts, and provides clear instructions for how to participate.

6) Provide a crowdfunding toolkit

Your ambassadors are your most dedicated supporters, but they lead busy lives—and it’s likely that most of them aren’t professional fundraisers! Make it as easy as possible for them to share your story and inspire generosity. To that end, provide templated materials for every step of the campaign that they can copy, customize, and share across digital channels. 

Short on time? We’ve got you covered.

Year-end is a great time to let AI tools do some of the heavy lifting, so that you can focus your energy on the relationships that really matter. Download your free copy of AI for Nonprofits: The Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Fundraising Communications and learn how new tools can help you create Giving Tuesday communications for every step of the campaign.

Create a digital Giving Tuesday toolkit that includes the following materials:

• A campaign overview with talking points
• Step-by-step instructions for setting up individual fundraising pages (if running a peer-to-peer campaign)
• Pre-written email, text, and social media templates
• Sample images and videos
• Hashtags to maximize impressions and reach (e.g., #GivingTuesday, #giveback, #supportlocal)
• Thank-you scripts and templates

Pro tip: Encourage your ambassadors to start small: share one post, send one email, or talk to one friend. Fundraising will feel much less intimidating if it’s framed as sharing something they love and care about rather than asking for a donation.

When your supporters know exactly what to say—and how and when to say it—they’ll feel more confident reaching out to their networks. Encourage them to add their own special touch, too. The power of crowdfunding comes from supporters’ authentic, first-person accounts of what your organization means to them and their community.

7) Coach supporters through the process 

Now that your ambassadors are equipped with the tools they need to fundraise with confidence, they’re ready to get the word out about your Giving Tuesday campaign. Coach them through the entire campaign timeline, from building excitement before Giving Tuesday to thanking their donors afterwards.

Before

Start promoting Giving Tuesday at least one week in advance. Use daily countdown posts on social media to build excitement and remind donors to mark their calendars, and ask your ambassadors to start getting the word out to their networks.

Day-of

On the morning of Giving Tuesday, send out a campaign launch email to your segmented donor lists and post across all social media channels. Instruct your supporters to begin promoting the campaign to their networks, clearly communicating your organization’s overall campaign goal as well as their individual fundraising goal, if they’ve set one.

Throughout the day, keep momentum high with frequent updates to your donors and ambassadors:

• Share progress toward your campaign goal
• Celebrate milestones and give kudos to top-performing fundraisers
• Remind donors of a gift matching opportunity, if there is one
• Post photos or videos thanking those who have given

Create increasing excitement as the day goes on, and send a final reminder to supporters as the midnight deadline approaches.

Quick tip: 8:00 PM is a good time—late enough to feel urgent, but early enough that folks haven’t unplugged for the night.

Follow up with intention

The campaign doesn’t end once Giving Tuesday has passed. Instead, it’s time to start the important next step of acknowledging your supporters and retaining new donors who have been introduced to your mission. 

8) Say thank you right away

Within 24 hours of Giving Tuesday, send a personalized thank-you to all of your donors and crowdfunding ambassadors. Include the total amount raised, how the funds will be used, and the specific impact their generosity has made possible. 

Example: Because of your generosity on Giving Tuesday, 50 local families will receive emergency food boxes this month. Your gift is already making an immediate impact on the community at a critical time of year. Thank you.

Send a separate, dedicated note of gratitude to your crowdfunding advocates. Let them know how much they raised through their collective efforts, and give a special shout-out to your top fundraisers. Emphasize that their support has provided essential momentum for your year-end nonprofit fundraising, and offer one more specific opportunity to engage before December 31 (e.g., sharing campaign results, making thank-you phone calls, attending an on-site event).

9) Deepen new connections

The most successful crowdfunding campaign opens doors to new long-term philanthropic partnerships. While some gifts may end up being one-off contributions, a proactive follow-up plan increases the likelihood that first-time donors remain active and engaged supporters. Use your nonprofit CRM to:

• Add all first-time donors to your new donor welcome series
• Segment and track crowdfunding donors for future outreach
• Invite them to upcoming events or volunteer opportunities

With consistent stewardship, this year’s first-time donors may become next year’s biggest crowdfunders on Giving Tuesday.

Looking to upgrade your crowdfunding efforts this Giving Tuesday?

When you leverage the power of nonprofit crowdfunding on Giving Tuesday, you turn your most active supporters into dedicated ambassadors and recruit new donors in the process. With the right tools and preparation, Giving Tuesday becomes an opportunity to meaningfully engage your community and grow your fundraising potential at year-end.

Download Your Nonprofit Crowdfunding Kit and get tips, timelines, and templates to launch a crowdfunding campaign that sparks generosity and inspires lasting engagement with your mission.