How to Plan a Year-End Giving Campaign, From Giving Tuesday to December 31

Year-end giving season always feels farther away than it is, right up until Giving Tuesday is on the calendar and the appeal isn't written. Jena Lynch, head of community engagement at Donorbox, has spent her career working inside nonprofits, and she joined Trevor on Hey Nonprofits! LIVE to walk through what a real team, with real limits on time and staff, can do to build a strong year-end campaign. Her first piece of advice: don't panic. You have more time than you think, as long as you spend it building relationships instead of stacking up asks.

Your Event Guests Are Warmer Than You Think

If you held a gala, auction, or golf outing this year, your attendee list is one of the best assets you'll take into year-end. Jena's point is that we organize donors around our own calendar, with the event, Giving Tuesday, and the year-end appeal as three separate campaigns. "The donor absolutely has no idea that these are three different parts of our fundraising calendar." They just remember coming to your event, and now they're hearing from you again.

The common mistake is sorting event guests into two buckets: gave and didn't give. That skips over how much engagement already happened. Someone bought a ticket, got dressed up, and spent a few hours hearing your stories. Bidders, table sponsors, and the friend who came as someone's guest all gave you their time. Jena described exactly that guest, the one who leaves the event without making a gift. It would be easy to log her as a zero-dollar donor and move on. "But I might have walked out thinking, wow, I really had no idea they did all this." Maybe she followed you on social media. Maybe she posted a photo and tagged you. Maybe she just needed time before giving.

Mini takeaway: The event isn't the end of the interaction. It's the start of the relationship, and your Giving Tuesday campaign should pick up where the evening left off.

Use the Rule of Seven, With an Asterisk

Jena leans on an old marketing idea, the rule of seven: people need several touch points before they act. She was clear that seven isn't a magic number, and she isn't telling you to send seven emails. The point is that one message after an event isn't enough, and most of your messages shouldn't ask for money.

Before your appeal goes out, a supporter should have received:

• A genuine thank-you.
• A look at what the event, or their support, made possible.
• An update, a story, or a compelling stat about the work.

Then the Giving Tuesday or year-end ask arrives with context. Sending "donate now" seven different ways isn't relationship building. As Jena put it, that's just asking someone to marry you seven different ways.

If You've Gone Quiet, Restart With Gratitude

Plenty of organizations look at their records and realize they've only contacted certain donors when they wanted something. Jena's reset is simple. Start with gratitude: thank people for being there, for opening your emails, for following you on social. Then find out what matters to them with a short survey, three questions at most. Which program are you most passionate about? How did you hear about us?

Her warning is to skip the survey if you won't use the answers. If a donor tells you they care about animal fostering, your next messages should reflect that. It takes work, but it pays off when Giving Tuesday arrives.

The same goes for what you send. An impact video is a great thank-you for a first-time or lapsed donor. Don't send it to someone who's supported you for ten years. Long-term, mid-level, and major donors should get updates on specific programs and what's new this year, without the "here's our mission" introduction. "If folks aren't new to you, don't treat them like they are."

Stop Emptying the Kitchen Sink

Q4 inboxes are packed, and donors are deleting fast. The temptation is to prove your value with every program, stat, and accomplishment of the year. Trevor shared a rule of three from LinkedIn fundraising expert Michelle Benson, which is to pick just three things to tell people, and Jena made it specific. Every donor should walk away knowing:

• The specific problem or challenge you're solving.
• What's unique about how your organization solves it compared with others doing similar work.
• What their gift will make possible, and exactly what you're asking them to do.

To stand out, tell one great story and carry it through the season. Jena's example was a rescue dog named Peanut, found abandoned in a field. His recovery, his foot surgery, the new tricks he learns, and his move into a forever home could fill five emails and a run of social posts on their own. By the end, the donor is invested and wants to know how Peanut is doing. "The organizations that live rent-free in my head are the ones telling great stories," she said.

Weave Monthly Giving Into Your Year-End Campaign

A listener asked about monthly giving and donor retention, and both Trevor and Jena are fans of building it into year-end. Keeping donors costs far less than finding new ones, and donors who stay year over year tend to give more. Often the problem is simply that the monthly option is hard to find.

Start with the basics. Does your donation form offer a monthly gift? Does it explain what a monthly gift does compared with a one-time gift? If $100 once covers a spay and neuter, tell donors what $50 a month accomplishes. Many giving platforms, Donorbox included, offer a recurring upsell: after a donor chooses a one-time amount, a prompt asks whether they'd like to make it a smaller monthly gift instead. Jena said the success rates for that nudge are impressive. For a deeper dive, Trevor recommends Dave Raley, a sustainable giving specialist and past Hey Nonprofits! guest who focuses almost entirely on monthly giving.

A fully branded monthly giving program with its own name, page, and community is a great long-term goal, but most teams won't build one before December. For this year, make the monthly option visible, explain its impact, and keep nurturing those donors. Then use January to go back to your most engaged supporters, show them what they made possible, and invite them to stay involved.

Your Year-End Giving Timeline, Phase by Phase

Jena doesn't recommend a rigid calendar that dictates every Wednesday email. She thinks in phases.

Phase 1: Set Up (As Early as You Can)

Decide what you're actually raising money for, and "as much as possible" doesn't count. Choose the story you'll tell, who you're talking to, and what you're asking them to do. Then check the mechanics. Build your campaign page and go through your own donation form on your phone. Jena suggests asking the youngest and oldest people you know to try it, since both will be honest. Does anything confuse them? Does the gift feel like the next step in your story or like a transaction? You don't want to find out on Giving Tuesday that your form breaks on mobile.

Get your list in order, too. You need enough segments to avoid treating everyone the same, such as current donors, lapsed donors, event attendees, new donors, and major and mid-level donors. You don't need 47 of them. This is also the time to approach corporate sponsors about a match and to give your board a toolkit with links and language they can share, since many board members have never fundraised before.

Phase 2: Attract (The Weeks Before the Ask)

Now you're drawing people closer before you ask. Tell stories, share impact, and let supporters see the work. Jena's favorite question for this stage: who do we want to be talking to on Giving Tuesday that we aren't talking to today? Introduce yourself to them now so your December ask isn't their first contact with you.

Phase 3: Promote (The Run-Up to Giving Tuesday)

Introduce the campaign intentionally: the goal, the story behind it, why it matters, why you're uniquely positioned, and how people can help. Don't just send weeks of "Giving Tuesday is coming." Use the channels you actually have, including social media, board outreach, and phone calls. Jena recommends setting aside even one hour on Friday to call donors. And don't email your board the night before Giving Tuesday asking everyone to post something tomorrow.

Giving Tuesday and Beyond

Giving Tuesday falls on December 1 this year. On the day, be clear about the goal, why it matters, what a gift accomplishes, and where to give, and don't be afraid to communicate more than once. People see your morning email, mean to give, and then the workday, dinner, and soccer practice get in the way.

Jena also suggests treating Giving Tuesday as a launching pad rather than your entire year-end strategy. If you miss your goal on December 1, you still have the rest of the month, and the final days of the year are among the most generous on the calendar. That's the real finish line for your year-end giving campaign.

Mini takeaway: Giving Tuesday is noisy, but your advantage is that you spent the previous weeks making sure you're not a stranger when the ask arrives.

Make a Corporate Match Part of the Story

Jena lives by a simple motto: if you don't ask, the answer is always no. Many companies have corporate giving commitments to meet by year-end, and some would be relieved to skip researching ten local organizations. Look for partners whose values align with yours, and think beyond "will you give us $10,000." What does the company get? Visibility, a way for employees to participate, or a clear connection to your mission.

If you land a match, use it as part of your campaign arc. Tease it ahead of time, launch it early, share progress updates, and tell people when you're close to unlocking the full amount. That gives you reasons to communicate that aren't just "please donate," and it creates urgency without guilt. Just don't let the match become the whole story. You still need to show the problem, your solution, and why the donor matters. Jena also recommends tools like Double the Donation that let donors check whether their employer matches gifts directly on your donation form. And if it's too late to secure a sponsor match this year, start the conversation now for next year.

Insights in this article are drawn from the Hey Nonprofits! LIVE episode “The 8-Week Countdown to Giving Tuesday”, featuring Jena Lynch, head of community engagement at Donorbox.