November and December have historically been big months for retail, with nearly 20% of annual revenue occurring in just eight weeks. The holiday season represents a crucial time for nonprofits as well: Giving Tuesday, which falls on the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving here in the States, raised an estimated $3.6B in 2024, and has helped not-for-profits generate nearly $19B since its inception in 2014.
Giving Tuesday 2025 falls on December 2nd. At the time of publishing this, that leaves a little over six weeks for nonprofits for prepare for the big day. Marketing and advertising can be a significant driver of fundraising awareness and even donations for not-for-profit organizations—and with this in mind, we have put together a guide to help your nonprofit prepare for Giving Tuesday 2025.
“Warm Up” Your Email Database
Email can be one of the most powerful marketing tactics in a nonprofit’s toolbelt, averaging $36 for every $1 spent. Don’t wait until Giving Tuesday to start emailing them, though—or you’ll wind up amongst the dozens they’ll receive that day. Instead, begin emailing your database on a regular cadence now: let them know what your nonprofit has been up to, your future plans; nuggets of info that will come in handy when it’s time to fundraise.
Keep your email communications to once weekly at most, and start prepping your call for fundraising well before Giving Tuesday. Don’t have an email marketing plan? We have built an email marketing platform for nonprofits we’d love to show you!
Maintain Your Social Presence
Social Media is where more than 1/3 of people learn about brands. Showcasing your good work on social can go a long way to ensuring that your nonprofit is top of mind for folks this Giving Tuesday. Paired with a strategic email marketing campaign, social can help you boost online fundraising efforts by up to 287% more than just doing one or the other.
Nonprofits should aim to post 3-4 times per week, especially leading up to Giving Tuesday. Ideally, your nonprofit should maintain a social content calendar, planning posts in advance that align with key themes around your mission and organization, also known as content pillars. Screechy Cat Media offers monthly digital marketing subscription packages that include creating and posting one, two, or three posts per week on behalf of your org.
Check Your Fundraising Links
There’s perhaps nothing more frustrating for nonprofit marketers than to plan a campaign, write original copy, find the perfect images—all to lead to an out-of-date fundraising link on the website. A quick audit of all website, social media, email, and other digital and offline content can save your organization from missing out on peak fundraising season. There are many good free and pay-per-use fundraising platforms to help streamline your philanthropic activities: Screechy Cat Media partners with GiveButter for our Centralized Growth Suite platform.
Generate New Leads
If your email database is on the smaller side, or you have exhausted all of your philanthropic options with your current contact list, running a low-budget lead generation campaign on a platform like Meta or LinkedIn. Lead Gen is often quite economical on social media, thanks to lead capture forms built into the social networks themselves—capturing information already known to the platform and allowing leads to fill in additional details, all without leaving the app.
LinkedIn or Meta lead gen packages start as low as $500/month, or we can build you a custom lead generation plan to help bolster your email marketing efforts this giving season!
Prepare for Giving Tuesday 2025, Starting Now!
It’s never too early (or in this case, too late) to get started. Sure, there may be 6 or less weeks remaining until Giving Tuesday 2025 (depending on when you read this), but there’s still time to make December 2nd a banner day for your nonprofit. Between email and social media marketing, working with a dedicated fundraising platform, and generating new leads to fuel the success of your marketing efforts, these are all activities that can be successfully planned, developed, and executed between now and Giving Tuesday. Looking for help? Screechy Cat Media offers a wide range of marketing and advertising services for nonprofits, from software to social media—let us help your not-for-profit get on the right path for giving season, today!
