End-of-Year Giving Guide: Strategy, Calendar & Templates

As the holidays approach, nonprofits enter their most important fundraising season, the end-of-year giving period, when nearly a third of all annual donations are made. Whether donors are driven by gratitude, generosity, or tax benefits, this is when your campaigns have the power to make the biggest impact.

To maximize results, you need a clear end-of-year giving strategy that aligns storytelling, donor outreach, and technology. Start by ensuring your tools can handle the surge in traffic, donations, and reporting demands.

This end-of-year giving guide breaks down a proven, month-by-month plan to help your nonprofit prepare early, execute confidently, and finish the year strong with inspired supporters and measurable results.

Year-End Giving Strategy: What Works Now

Before you start sending appeals, make sure you have a strategy that sets your campaign up for success. A strong end-of-year giving plan combines clear goals, smart segmentation, consistent storytelling, and frictionless giving experiences, all designed to convert generosity into impact.

Set clear goals

Decide what success looks like early. Review your performance from last year and set targets for:

• Total revenue
• Number of donors
• Average gift size
• Recurring gift percentage

Use these metrics to build realistic goals that align with your mission and resources. Establish daily or weekly benchmarks so you can measure progress and pivot quickly when needed.

Segment & personalize

Not every donor gives for the same reason, and your outreach should reflect that. Segment your audience into groups like major donors, mid-level givers, first-time donors, lapsed supporters, and recurring donors.

Then, tailor your appeals:

• Major donors want updates on impact and strategic outcomes.
• First-time donors respond to personal stories and tangible results.
• Recurring donors appreciate acknowledgment and reminders that their ongoing support matters.

A segmented approach ensures every message feels personal, relevant, and worth reading.

Craft a single, sticky campaign theme & story

Your campaign should tell one cohesive story across every channel. Center it on the real people and outcomes behind your mission. A clear, emotionally grounded theme, like “Hope for the Holidays” or “Finish Strong for Families”, helps donors connect and remember why their contribution matters.

Carry that story through your emails, social posts, donation forms, and thank-you messages to maintain consistency and trust.

Optimize donation UX

Remove any friction between intention and action. Test your donation form early to confirm it works seamlessly on desktop and mobile.

• Enable Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH to simplify checkout.
• Include options for tribute gifts and corporate matching to expand opportunities.
• Feature suggested giving amounts and a clear monthly toggle to encourage sustained giving.

Every second saved, and every distraction removed, can translate directly into more completed donations.

EOY Quick Wins

Small changes can make a big impact during the year-end rush. Try adding:

• Matching gift challenges to double donations and spark urgency.
• Deadline countdowns on emails and donation pages to build momentum.
• SMS nudges to remind donors in real time as deadlines approach.
• Dynamic gift arrays that suggest higher giving levels based on donor history.
• Recurring donation prompts that highlight monthly giving as a lasting commitment.
• Corporate match search tools so donors can multiply their impact instantly.
• Progress bars or “X days left” updates on your homepage to drive late-stage conversions.

Each of these quick wins helps your nonprofit capture attention and maximize giving when it matters most.

Month-by-Month Year-End Giving Calendar

September – Audit & Plan

• Review last year’s EOY campaign(s)
  • Pull reports with data that include dollars raised, number of donors, number of donations, number of new donors, number of repeat donors, and average gift size to drive your goal-setting for the upcoming fiscal year and campaigns. 
• Establish your goals 
• Develop your key personas
  • Donor personas are central to successful fundraising because they can help you understand who your donors are, what they expect and value, and what ties them to your mission. Once you’ve developed your personas, you can segment your database and target appeals that are meaningful and relevant. 
• Brainstorm campaign concepts 
• Conduct a website audit
  • Have your marketing team audit your website, incorporating feedback from volunteers, board members, family members, and others. 
• Ask your auditors/testers to:
  • Donation forms  
  • Your email list  
  • Your about you section  
  • Other actions relevant to your site or campaign 
• Test your technology 
• Get your creative concepts reviewed and approved 
• Begin collecting stories
  • You’ll want to tell compelling stories during your fundraising campaign(s) about individuals your organization has served. Stories can inspire your supporters, help communicate exactly where donations are going, and show passion for your cause. Identify those in your community you could spotlight in these stories. 
• Build out an editorial calendar 
• Recruit board members to help with EOY efforts 

October – Build & Pre-Launch

• Clean up donor data 
• Build a donor journey based on personas
  • Each donor’s experience should feel personal, depending on his/her/their persona. For example, the giving process for a major donor to a zoo who has a passion for red-eyed tree frogs should look and feel different than the process for your $50 donor who likes polar bears. 
• Create web content  
• Create campaign-specific donation forms
  • You’ll want to continue the campaign theme all the way through the giving process, including your forms. This keeps the conversation going in the donor’s head, which is a much better scenario than sending them to a generic donation form right after reading an amazing, relevant story. 
• Write emails and direct appeals 
• Seek asset/appeal approval 
• Review appeals and donation forms with accounting  
• Write EOY thank you letters
  • Make sure your thank you messages match your personas and continue your stories. After all, it was your meaningful, relevant stories that piqued donors’ interests to begin with, so keep it going through the thank you and even the follow-up next year. 
• Identify corporate partners/sponsors 
• Make sure #GivingTuesday is part of your plan
  • #GivingTuesday is a no-brainer. In 2022, more than 37 million adults participated in many ways. Giving in the U.S. alone totaled $3.1 billion, a 15% increase compared to 2021. You should absolutely take advantage of the widespread (and growing) awareness and observance of this special day. 

November – Warm-Up & GivingTuesday

• Final campaign approvals
  • It’s almost go-time, so campaign approvals should be signed, sealed, and delivered! 
• Finalize all communication assets 
• Send your warm-up communication 
• Conduct a telephone thank-a-thon 
• Test, test, test
  • Get your staff and volunteers involved in campaign testing. Use as many variables as you can. 
• Send your first EOY appeal 
• Send pre-#GivingTuesday email notices 
• #GivingTuesday is always the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so consider sending out a note the week before and the week of Thanksgiving. 
• Recruit volunteers 
• Block time on your Executive Director’s calendar to personally sign thank-you notes 
• Send #GivingTuesday email solicitation on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving
  • #GivingTuesday is a major EOY fundraising campaign for your organization. Use all the tools at your disposal to get your name, mission, and ask on the donor map. 
• Post about #GivingTuesday on social media
  • Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or whatever other social media channels you use should come alive on #GivingTuesday. Be sure to include the #GivingTuesday hashtag and a link to your donation page in posts and your profile description. 

December – Peak Fundraising

• Execute your editorial calendar
  • Time for the RUSH! Provide EOY campaign updates, thank donors who have given to your yearend efforts, and interact on social media early and often throughout the month. This is where you separate yourself from the herd and really focus on your donors and their impact. If you’ve followed this monthly plan so far, December won’t be the fire drill that it’s felt like in years past. 
• Take over your website homepage 
• Post social media thank yous and updates
  • This should be, at best, a daily task (or at least, weekly) throughout the entire month of December. 
• Continue making thank-you phone calls 
• Get your last direct mail solicitation to UPS by Dec. 15
  • December 15 is a good target for a direct mail drop deadline. Based on your audience and the distance your appeals have to travel (within the state versus internationally, for example) you may consider a shift in either direction. 
• Review your initial campaign emails and adapt 
• Schedule an email solicitation for the holiday week 
• Set an out-of-office message
  • Instead of the same-old, same-old, “I’m out, blank, returning, blank,” message, ask all employees to reinforce your EOY campaign in their out-of-office messages. You might even consider providing them with a script to cut and paste. 
• Send your final “last chance” email solicitation on Dec. 30  
• Start building a new donor welcome series
  • In the heat of the EOY moment, you may feel like securing any hard-fought, year-end dollars is your ultimate goal. But really, this is just the beginning. Each donation should be viewed as the start (or continuation) of a wonderful, long-lasting, meaningful relationship. And, since it’s much easier to get a supporter to donate a second or even third time, it’s critical that you start building a solid connection immediately.

Year-End Donation Appeals (Copy & Subject Lines)

Your appeals are where strategy becomes action. Each message should connect emotionally, make the ask clearly, and remove friction from the giving process.

Email subject line templates (EOY + GivingTuesday)

Proven high-performing styles include gratitude, urgency, impact, and match framing. Test a mix of these examples:

1. You can change more lives before midnight
2. Every gift counts twice today
3. Join us before the year ends
4. See what your generosity made possible
5. Last chance to give in 2025
6. Match unlocked: your gift doubles until midnight
7. Together we reached 90% of our goal
8. Give before the tax deadline and make it count
9. Help us finish strong this GivingTuesday
10. Your support today builds next year’s success

Keep subject lines under 55 characters for mobile readability and test variants that balance personalization and urgency.

Appeal body outline

Each email or direct mail piece should follow a proven, concise structure:

1. Hook: Start with a compelling image, story, or question that connects to your mission.
2. Impact: Explain what a donation achieves in specific, measurable terms.
3. Proof: Reinforce credibility through short testimonials, data points, or achievements.
4. Match/Urgency: Include time-sensitive language or matching gift opportunities.
5. CTA: Use a single, clear call to action such as “Give Now” or “Double Your Impact.”
6. P.S.: Restate the urgency or personal impact of the donor’s gift.

Keep copy tight and action-focused, aiming for no more than 250 words per appeal email.

SMS and social snippets

SMS and social channels reach donors where they already spend their time. Use short, time-sensitive prompts:

SMS examples:

• “Only hours left to make your 2025 gift count. Give now at [shortlink].”
• “Your donation today helps us reach our year-end goal. Every dollar matters.”

Social post examples:

• “We’re 80% to our goal. Be the reason we cross the finish line. Donate today.”
• “It’s not too late to give back. Your contribution before midnight is tax-deductible.”

Landing page checklist

Ensure every donor touchpoint leads to a page optimized for conversions.

Your year-end giving landing page should include:

• Clear headline tied to your campaign theme
• Compelling visual or short video proof of impact
• Real-time match meter or goal progress bar
• Tiered gift array with prefilled options
• Monthly giving toggle above the fold
• Trust badges, security icons, and testimonial or partner logos
• Minimal fields and single-click payment options (Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH)

GivingTuesday Guide (Within the EOY Plan)

GivingTuesday anchors your end-of-year campaign. Treat it as both a single-day event and a launchpad for sustained giving.

3-email sequence + 2 SMS + social pack

• Email 1 (Teaser): Send one week prior to build anticipation and introduce the campaign theme.
• Email 2 (Launch): Send the morning of GivingTuesday with a clear ask and impact example.
• Email 3 (Follow-Up): Send in the evening with a progress update and final appeal.
• SMS 1: Reminder in the afternoon about the match or goal progress.
• SMS 2: Final “one hour left” nudge before midnight.
• Social pack: Schedule posts for morning, mid-day, and evening updates with a mix of impact stories and goal tracking graphics.

Real-time updates and match unlocks

Post hourly or milestone updates across your website and social media. Show donors how close you are to your target and announce when new matching gifts are unlocked. Real-time transparency boosts participation and repeat visits.

Post-event conversion to monthly

Within 72 hours, send a follow-up email that thanks donors, shares immediate results, and offers an easy “Make it Monthly” upgrade option. Reinforce that recurring support sustains impact long after GivingTuesday.

Donor Stewardship and Retention (Post-Gift)

Retention starts the moment the donor hits “submit.”

24-hour thank-you SLA and impact receipt

Acknowledge every donation within 24 hours with a personalized thank-you email. Include a digital “impact receipt” summarizing how the gift supports your mission, total raised to date, and a next-step invitation such as signing up for updates or joining a volunteer event.

New donor welcome series (3-part)

• Email 1 (Immediate): Express gratitude and share a short success story.
• Email 2 (1 week later): Introduce your mission and how ongoing support makes a difference.
• Email 3 (2 weeks later): Highlight other ways to get involved such as recurring giving or volunteering.

Upgrade paths

Encourage ongoing relationships:

• Convert one-time donors to monthly contributors with clear messaging about sustained impact.
• Offer recognition tiers or milestones for monthly donors to motivate higher giving levels over time.

Compliance and Tax-Time Readiness

Tax-deductible messaging do’s and don’ts

• Do: Clearly state whether gifts are tax-deductible and include your nonprofit’s EIN.
• Don’t: Promise specific financial outcomes or legal advice.

Include a short note in email footers and receipts: “All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.”

Year-end consolidated receipts and January statements

Consolidate donor receipts and send year-end summaries by mid-January. This not only supports tax preparation but also provides an early touchpoint for recurring or upgraded gifts.

Data hygiene, opt-in language, PCI/ACH considerations

• Confirm all payment processors are PCI compliant.
• Ensure opt-in and consent language meets CAN-SPAM and GDPR standards.
• Review donor records for duplicates and outdated contact information before campaigns begin.

End-of-Year Fundraising Made Easier

The right tools can turn your end-of-year giving strategy into lasting impact. GiveSmart simplifies every step of fundraising, from mobile auctions and peer-to-peer events to donor engagement and gift tracking, so your team can focus on inspiring generosity, not managing logistics.

When paired with MIP Accounting, you gain a complete view of your organization’s financial and fundraising performance. Together, these platforms streamline donations, automate reporting, and strengthen donor stewardship for long-term sustainability.

Ready to simplify fundraising and maximize year-end results? Learn more about GiveSmart by Momentive Software today.

FAQ