This year, Americans gave a record $4 billion to nonprofits on GivingTuesday, further cementing its place in the giving season’s culture. Last Tuesday’s results showed an increase from $3.6 billion in 2024, with an estimated 38.1 million people participating, including 19.1 million people who made monetary donations. 

Here at S&W, our clients also achieved significant success, with giving largely at or exceeding last year’s performance. As we work with our clients to fully analyze the channels, elements, and tests that made our GivingTuesday campaigns successful, a few notable trends have emerged:  

1) It’s safe to say that “GivingTuesday” is no longer just a single day: In years past, we’ve seen the lengthening of the “GivingTuesday” period, with many campaigns launching a week before GivingTuesday itself. For many of our clients, the S&W team has moved to the idea of a “Giving Week,” and we’ve seen a similar shift for other organizations. This mirrors the retail sector, which has started to launch Black Friday sales weeks in advance, necessitating the need for our membership clients to do the same so that membership purchases are considered as part of the holiday gift giving.  

How far the timeline can be extended—both before and after GivingTuesday (including GivingTuesday match extensions)—remains to be seen, and signs of churn, fatigue and disengagement should be looked at closely. Finding the right balance between making the most of GivingTuesday from a revenue standpoint and ensuring donors feel valued and respected is key. At S&W, our goal is always to ensure that our clients’ programs remain healthy during high-volume periods, and that audiences remain connected and engaged through cultivation, report-backs and soft asks in the wake of GivingTuesday. To us, “making the most” of GivingTuesday goes beyond giving—it’s about creating a space where the organizations we work with become (and remain) donors’ philanthropies of choice. 

2) Mid-level donors came through: We saw strong participation from our mid-level audiences during the course of our GivingTuesday campaigns, including one organization whose mid-level gifts increased by 16.67% over last year—and whose mid-level revenue increased by 64.15%. This may be a sign that mid-level audiences are more comfortable with the economy—and their own personal economic situation—than they were in 2024, or that GivingTuesday has taken root as donors’ preferred time to give during the year-end season. 

3) Flash matches inspired giving: Flash matches continued to be a standout strategy this GivingTuesday. Donors responded especially well when the match was tied to a specific, tangible goal or something they could immediately understand and feel confident supporting. They created a strong sense of urgency, prompting donors to act quickly. With coordinated timing across email, paid advertising, organic social media, and website efforts (lightboxes, homepage features, and notification bars), our nonprofits maintained consistent engagement. When every channel reinforced the same message at the same moment, supporters were far more motivated to participate and help reach the goal before the match expired. 

4) Showing up on social is a “must”: Giving Tuesday is a digital-first holiday—and you need a digital-first channel mix. In addition to email, clients saw big success with organic social, with multiple posts on the day itself driving giving. Strategies to success include quick hits on the impact of your mission, highly engaging video content, or up-to-the-hour updates on your progress to goal. It’s a great way to engage everyone who cares about your organization, from new prospects to your most loyal donors. 

5) Rapid response and emergency donations did not fatigue donors ahead of GivingTuesday: Over the last few months, we’ve been guiding many of our clients through a turbulent time—including government funding cuts and the federal shutdown. By way of rapid response and emergency campaigns, donors really and truly have come through for those organizations over the last few months.  

With those campaigns occurring during the lead-up to GivingTuesday, we were curious to see whether donors would come through again on GivingTuesday itself. We were beyond pleased to see that they did—including a social services and social justice client that saw a 132% increase in GivingTuesday revenue from last year, despite raising substantial revenue in the weeks prior. 

All in all, what we’ve found is that increased competition on GivingTuesday does not need to be a burden—nor does it mean that an organization that creates the most noise will be the organization that is most successful on GivingTuesday.  

As GivingTuesday continues to root itself as the cultural phenomenon that it has become, we’re even more dedicated to the ideas of building reciprocal rather than transactional relationships, going where your supporters are, showing the true and authentic urgency of the work, and activating those bases of support through special opportunities. 

To learn more about how we can help, contact Brad Levinson or visit https://schultzwilliams.com/digital-campaigns/.