GivingTuesday is December 1, 2026 (GivingTuesday.org). Most advice for it assumes a communications team. Here is what to do if the team is you and one other person.
Decide if you are in
You do not have to do GivingTuesday. It is a crowded day, and a weak campaign can cost you more in goodwill than it raises. Skip it if your list is under about 100 people and you have nothing new to say.
Do it if you have one clear, concrete thing to ask for. Not “support our work.” Something a donor can picture.
Pick one number and one picture
The campaigns that work for small orgs are specific. “$40 fills one backpack, and we need 60 of them.” One number, one image, one deadline.
Vague goals get vague results. If you cannot say what a gift buys, you are asking people to fund a budget line, and nobody feels good about that.
The four-week plan
Four weeks out
Write the ask. One paragraph. Send it to two people who do not work for you and ask what they think it pays for. If they get it wrong, rewrite it.
Three weeks out
Clean your list. Not all of it, just the part you will actually email. Bounced addresses and duplicates make your numbers lie to you afterwards.
Two weeks out
Line up three or four people who will give in the first hour. Ask them directly. A campaign that opens at zero stays near zero, and one that opens with a few gifts pulls others along.
One week out
Write all your messages now, while you are calm. You need four: a heads-up, a morning-of, a mid-afternoon nudge, and a thank-you. Schedule what you can.
The day itself
Send in the morning, send again in the late afternoon, and stop. Two emails is not spam on GivingTuesday. Silence after lunch is the more common mistake.
Post the running total somewhere people can see it. Progress is the strongest thing you have and it costs nothing.
The part everyone skips
Thank people within 48 hours, by name, saying what their gift did. Not a receipt. A thank-you.
A first-time GivingTuesday donor who hears nothing until next November is not a donor, they are a one-off. The follow-up is where the campaign actually pays.
One thing to add this year
Tell donors that gifts made in 2026 may be deductible even if they do not itemize, up to $1,000, or $2,000 filing jointly, and to check with their tax preparer. Most of them will not know. Here is what changed.