The year-end giving calendar for nonprofits

This is the calendar for a nonprofit with no fundraising team. Raising money is one part of one person's job, and that person is already behind.

Why the calendar matters more than the copy

Year-end giving is not won by a better letter. It is won by sending things on time, to people who already know you, more than once.

For a small team, a weak letter is not the big risk. The big risk is that November disappears.

October: get ready while it is quiet

Week one

Pull your donor list into one place. Today it may live in a spreadsheet, an inbox and somebody's memory. This is the week that costs you, and the week that pays.

Week two

Pick the one story you will tell. One person, one program, one change. You will use it in every message from here to December 31.

Week three

List your lapsed donors, meaning people who gave in 2024 or 2025 but not yet in 2026. They already know your work, so you are asking them to come back, not to start.

Week four

Write the appeal. Then put it down. You will edit it in November with fresh eyes.

November: send things

Week one

Edit and finish the appeal. If you are a public charity and not a supporting organization, add one line about the 2026 deduction change. Starting in tax year 2026, donors who do not itemize can deduct cash gifts to qualifying charities. The limit is $1,000, or $2,000 on a joint return (IRS). Here is the wording.

Week two

Mail the print appeal if you send one. Post takes longer than you think, and a letter that arrives in the last days of December lands in a pile.

Week three

Personal asks. Ten to twenty of your closest supporters, one at a time, not a mass email. Call, or write each one a short note in your own words.

Week four

GivingTuesday is December 1 this year (GivingTuesday.org). If you are running one, everything for it should already be written. Here is the plan.

December: repeat, then repeat

First half

Email the appeal to your list. Leave off anyone who just gave on GivingTuesday. A few days later, email the people who have not given yet, with a new subject line. Some people miss the first one, and a new subject gives them a second chance.

Week of the 26th

Send twice: once around the 28th and once on the 31st, only to people who have not given yet. That leaves off your new GivingTuesday donors too. The last week counts. In the M+R Benchmarks 2026 study of online giving, the last week of 2025 brought in 10% of the year's total. December 31 alone brought in 4%.

December 31

Make sure your donation page works and that someone is watching the inbox. A broken form on the 31st is a whole year of a donor's intent, lost.

January, which is part of year-end

Thank everyone by name, the same day if you can and within two days at most. If gifts to you are tax-deductible, send each donor a year-end statement in the first two weeks. To deduct a gift of $250 or more, a donor needs a written receipt from you (IRS). Then look at who gave, who lapsed, and who gave more than last year.

That last list is your major gift conversation for next year. It is sitting in your own data, so set aside an hour to look.

Ember Giving can help with January. It lists the gifts still waiting on a thank-you. It flags donors whose last gift was more than a year ago. It prints a year-end statement for each donor who gave that year. Ember is made for nonprofits like yours, and it is free if your budget is under $50K a year.

What to leave out

You do not need a video. You do not need a new donation platform in November. You do not need to be on every social channel. Sending on time, more than once, to people who know you, beats all of it.