The end of the year can be a crucial period to raise funds, inspire future giving, and meet targets for advancement teams. Here are some campaign ideas to help you navigate this time of the year.
Anwesha Kiran
Published:
September 4, 2025
Updated:
October 31, 2025
Discover AI Summary
• Make it easy for donors to multiply their impact: Highlight employer matching gift opportunities prominently, as making these tools easily accessible can significantly boost your year-end fundraising by doubling or even tripling gifts.
• Don't treat Giving Tuesday as a one-off: Instead, use it as an exciting launchpad for a longer, more sustained year-end giving campaign to build momentum and keep alumni engaged throughout December.
• Empower your community: Leverage peer-to-peer fundraising by equipping passionate supporters to share your cause, which can organically expand your reach and bring in new donors you might not otherwise connect with.
• Tell compelling stories: Feature authentic student impact stories in your appeals to show donors the real, tangible difference their generosity makes, transforming fundraising from transactional to deeply personal.
• Turn seasonal generosity into lasting support: Launch a branded recurring giving program during year-end to convert one-time givers into loyal, consistent donors, ensuring more predictable revenue for your institution.
• Personalize your outreach: Segment your donor database and tailor your messages to different groups; this targeted approach helps your appeals stand out in crowded inboxes and can lead to a significant jump in average gift size.
The final months of the year are a very important fundraising season, accounting for nearly 30% of annual gifts. For institutions and nonprofits, this is a vital period to reach or stretch fundraising goals, build relationships, and kickstart momentum you can take forward into the next year.
A great year-end fundraising campaign is usually the result of thoughtful planning, great storytelling and successful execution. In this blog, we’ll help you pick out the best campaign strategies for all your year-end giving campaigns. Let’s get started.
You know December is the gift-giving season, but it’s also a giving season, plain and simple. In fact, nonprofits receive about 30% of their annual donations in December, with 10% of the total coming in just the last three days of the year. This volume is driven by holiday generosity, tax deadlines, and that final push before the calendar turns.
For schools, colleges, and universities, this time can be especially powerful. Alumni often feel nostalgic and generous during the holidays. When your messages pair real impact stories with easy donation paths, you’re giving donors a chance to be part of something meaningful.
For many institutions and nonprofits, Giving Tuesday has become the unofficial kickoff for year-end fundraising. Institutions that treat it as a launchpad rather than a one-off event can potentially build and sustain more momentum throughout December.
Pace University’s 2024 Giving Tuesday campaign brought in 2,674 gifts and $768,822, far exceeding its goals. The university framed Giving Tuesday as the beginning of a season-long campaign, using the energy of that day to drive continued appeals through December.
How to set it up:
Giving Tuesday already benefits from broad awareness and media attention. Donors expect to see appeals that day, so it’s easier to capture their attention. But the real payoff comes when institutions carry that enthusiasm forward, turning a single day into a multi-week narrative of giving.
💡Use visuals like countdown timers or progress bars to keep the sense of urgency alive beyond Giving Tuesday.
Many donors don’t realize their employers will match their contributions, often doubling or even tripling the donation amount. By highlighting this opportunity, you can inspire donors to give more confidently, knowing their gift will go further.
For example, Blair Academy integrated a matching gift lookup tool and automated follow-up emails into their year-end outreach. This simple addition drove a 32% lift in December matching gifts, with an impressive 68% open rate on emails.
Why it works: This makes it easy for donors to discover their eligibility, and reminding them at the right time can significantly boost year-end revenue.
💡Always remind donors that they can often double their gift in just a few minutes by submitting a matching request through their employer. It’s one of the easiest ways for them to increase their impact without spending extra.
Peer-to-peer fundraising allows supporters to share your cause with their networks, bringing in donations you might not reach otherwise. Friends and family are more likely to give when the ask comes from someone they trust.
A standout example is Turnstone’s “It Can Be Done” year-end campaign, which raised over $220,000: 360% of their initial goal. Beyond the impressive total, the campaign brought in 34 new donors organically through peer-to-peer channels. This fueled immediate results and built a base of long-term supporters.
How to set it up:
Why it works: activating your community as ambassadors during the year-end season can multiply your impact far beyond what your team could accomplish alone.
💡Celebrate and spotlight your peer-to-peer fundraisers publicly, whether through social media shoutouts, leaderboards, or small rewards. Recognition keeps them motivated and inspires others.
As with any other time of the year, social media plays a pivotal role during the year-end fundraising window too, but success depends on thoughtful, multi-channel engagement rather than isolated posts.
Donors often need 3–5 touchpoints across email, social media, and direct mail to be motivated to give. 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media take action (such as donating), indicating strong ROI when social posts are part of a coordinated strategy.
How to set it up:
Why it works: In year-end campaigns, social media works best when it’s part of a well-timed, multi-channel orchestration.
💡Schedule your posts in advance and align them with your email and event calendar. This ensures consistency across channels and frees you up to focus on real-time engagement with donors during the busiest giving days.
At year-end, donors may want to see tangible proof of fundraisers earlier in the year or from last year’s year-end campaign to prove that their support actually changes lives. Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to make that impact real. When donors hear directly from students and families, they connect emotionally and see exactly how their generosity creates opportunities.
A recent example comes from the Aim Higher Foundation, which made storytelling the centerpiece of its fundraising strategy. Through emotionally compelling videos featuring authentic family stories, they drove a 242% increase in fundraising, raising $13 million and expanding scholarships from 400 to 2,550 annually.
How to set it up:
Why it works: authentic storytelling transforms fundraising from transactional to relational, showing donors that they’re changing lives.
💡Repurpose stories across channels—turn a long-form video into short clips for social media, pull quotes for emails, and highlight key outcomes in infographics. This maximizes impact while keeping your storytelling fresh and consistent.
Many one-time supporters are inspired during the holidays, making it the perfect moment to convert them into long-term givers. By branding a recurring giving program, you create a sense of belonging to a special community.
A great example comes from Noble and Greenough School, whose branded program, the “Dawg Pack” successfully converted 26 of 121 graduating seniors into recurring donors. Framing recurring giving as membership in a group made participation aspirational, especially for young alumni looking to stay connected.
How to set it up:
Why it works: turning seasonal generosity into sustained support ensures predictable revenue and builds a loyal donor community that lasts well beyond December.
💡Test names and perks with a small group before launching your recurring program.
Year-end giving is the perfect moment to spotlight corporate philanthropy and employer-matching opportunities. These programs can double or even triple donor impact, but they’re often overlooked. By highlighting matches in December campaigns, you can significantly boost giving while helping donors feel their support goes further.
For instance, in 2024 Benevity reported $140 million donated through corporate platforms on GivingTuesday alone. Yet, research shows that many donors are still unaware their employers offer matching gifts.
How to set it up:
💡Make matching gifts impossible to miss: add an employer lookup tool and show donors how their gift can go twice (or three times!) as far.
Generic year-end emails often blur together in crowded inboxes. A personalized approach, however, makes donors feel recognized, and that recognition drives action. Campaigns using tailored messaging and donor segmentation see up to a 61% jump in average gift size and a 10% increase in conversion rates.
How to set it up:
Start preparing your assets, campaign theme, and key messaging by October or November. A strong plan ensures you’re not rushing in December, when donor inboxes and social feeds are crowded and many donors may be on vacation.If planning involves advancement, marketing, and alumni teams, an AI meeting note taker can help document campaign decisions, ownership, and follow-up tasks before the year-end rush begins.
To give your communication that personalized touch, create specific appeals for first-time donors, monthly givers, and lapsed supporters. Segmented campaigns can boost conversion rates and significantly increase average gifts.
Combine email, social media, direct mail, text messaging, and even phone calls to reach donors where they are. A consistent message across channels keeps your campaign top of mind.
Use fundraising thermometers, live updates, or social posts to track how close you are to your goal. Celebrating milestones encourages more donors to join in and push you over the finish line.
A quick, heartfelt thank-you message whether by email, phone, or video strengthens relationships and sets the stage for future giving.
Year-end giving is a high-stakes but high-reward period. As you prepare for year-end giving, remember that small changes in your strategy can make a big difference. Use these tips to make donors feel connected and valued, and you’ll set your campaign up for success.
Capitalize on the charitable nature of the end of the year by putting your cause, supporters, and progress at the heart of your campaign. Highlight the value of maximizing tax benefits for donors and build anticipation for how funds will be used next year.
Almabase simplifies your giving day campaigns through simple yet flexible tools for everything from giving pages and event management to communications and attendee engagement.
Donors usually act give towards the end of the year due to a combination of holiday generosity, a desire for tax deductions, and the emotional impact of year-end appeals.
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The benefits of alumni reunions can be reaped by schools long after they’re over. Reunions offer alumni the chance to look back at the good old days and also act as a golden opportunity for making lasting relationships with their alma mater and fellow alumni.
While alumni reunions are clearly awesome, ‘when’ you choose to organize your reunion plays a pivotal role in its success.
After observing over a hundred schools organize successful alumni reunions, we’ve finally settled on the end-of-the-year/holiday season as the best time for high school alumni reunions.
High school reunions usually happen in the of Summer (June - August) or towards the end of the year (September - November). What works best for your alumni may vary from school to school but we'll make our case on why we think you should consider the latter part of the year.
Whether your alumni live in another state or halfway across the world, the end-of-the-year/holiday season is when they come home for homecoming and to spend time with their friends and family. It is therefore highly likely that your alumni will be in town to be able to attend your event.
With most offices already closed for the holiday season, alumni have abundant time on their hands to socialize and are often in the mood to meet classmates and revisit fond memories.
November (46.2%) and December (30.8%) are the most popular months for making year-end asks, but 7.7% of organizations start as early as September!
- Jeff Gordy
Co-Founder of Z2 Systems, Inc.
Since the end of the year is peak fundraising season, coupling your alumni reunion with a fundraising campaign can be highly effective for your institution. With the holiday season ringing in and alumni meeting up with old friends, there can’t be a better time to ask them to donate toward your cause.
If you're already prepping for your end-of-year alumni reunion for your school, here are some great tips on increasing alumni donations during the event.
While the best time of the year ultimately depends on your alumni base and can certainly vary from year to year, the end of the year lends itself to some great engagement and fundraising strategies that are exclusive to the fall season. If you've mostly been a summer reunion school, we hope you'll give fall a try this year.
High school reunions are typically held 10, 20, or 25 years after graduation, often during the late summer or fall.
September or October are popular months for reunions as the weather is pleasant and schedules are less hectic.
The end of the year is ideal because many people visit home for the holidays, making it easier to gather.
Plan a summer reunion for outdoor activities or a holiday reunion to coincide with people’s travel and festive spirit.
Why is the end-of-the-year best time for high school alumni reunions?
Discover the best time to host a high school reunion, why end-of-year works so well, and how to turn it into a powerful alumni fundraiser.
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This is the season of charitable giving! We don’t know what it is about the holidays - the Christmas spirit of altruism or the December 31st tax receipt deadline. But we do know that we could expect an increase in donations coming in during this time of the year!
According to M+R Benchmarks Report, December giving accounts for 26% of annual nonprofit revenue.
This blog will help you amplify the impact of your year-end giving campaign. From crafting strategic partnerships to embracing innovative engagement techniques, we'll explore the key pillars that make a year-end initiative truly shine.
Achieving personalization at scale might seem daunting. Here's where donor segmentation steps in as a strategic powerhouse for a successful end-of-year campaign.
The essence lies in tailoring messages based on behavior or traits—grouping donors into categories like LYBUNT, SYBUNT, First-time donors, Young alumni donors, etc., and acknowledging their support through gift size categories. The mission is clear: make every message resonate uniquely.
You can also:
In the midst of the holiday hustle, Giving Tuesday stands out as the day for charitable giving. To harness its potential, precision is key—target the right donors with a compelling message that highlights your nonprofit's unique value proposition and the direct impact of Giving Tuesday contributions.
There are many ways you can make your Giving Tuesday a hit!
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💡 With Almabase, you can seamlessly create engaging campaigns with leaderboards, thermometers, and more.
Strategic collaborations can elevate your year-end giving campaign to new heights. Imagine the resonance of every donation being doubled, not just by one entity but through a mix of foundations, companies, and dedicated alumni.
However, proposing custom matching gift initiatives to companies without existing programs may seem like opening new doors. The hack here lies in education and incentive. Provide a toolkit simplifying the process for both the company and your alumni, emphasizing the profound impact of matching gifts.
Personalization is your key to success. Tailoring messages to address donors by name, referencing their past contributions, and articulating specific impacts significantly elevates the efficacy of fundraising appeals.
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Some channels you can focus on:
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A robust follow-through strategy is essential in sustaining donor momentum throughout the year-end fundraising campaign. Continuous reminders, balanced urgency in messaging, and targeted follow-up appeals contribute to maintaining engagement without overwhelming donors.
We all know that swift acknowledgments significantly boost the likelihood of repeat donations, making prompt gratitude a strategic move. However, the art of appreciation extends beyond mere transactional gestures.
This might include weaving stories into thank-you letters that evoke emotion and connection, illuminating the journey of individuals or causes touched by the donor's support, emphasizing tangible change, or shifting the narrative to showcase the donor's role in solving the problem. You can also capture attention by strategically using visual cues such as brackets, PS lines, or bold/underlined text.
How to Amplify the Impact of the Year-End Giving Campaign?
Explore actionable tips for a successful year-end giving campaign, focusing on donor segmentation, precise engagement for Giving Tuesday, strategic partnerships, etc.
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More than a year after the pandemic had taken the world by storm, 2021 proves to be a challenging year ahead for liberal arts colleges across the country. The resulting disruption has caused advancement teams from institutions to rethink their programming and find unique ways to engage alumni and donors. With the end of the fiscal year already here, now is the right time for advancement teams to start thinking about ways to drive end-of-year gifts.
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Without further ado, here are 5 of our curated Giving Day tips, which can help increase those donation numbers significantly as we near the end of the fiscal year.
It's always a best practice to start promoting your Giving Day as early as possible and build-up to the day of the event. While inviting your alumni to campus is not exactly a viable option at the moment, social media is an excellent channel to engage with your community and build momentum. Countdown posts on social media are also a great way to spread the word.
Instead of merely creating posters or event notifications at intervals like, say, 15, 10, and 5 days before the , think of ways to incentivize donors to participate. For instance, along with every countdown post, you can also share testimonials of past donors on social media. Seeing a friend believe in your institution’s cause can be a strong motivator for more alumni to donate.
Alternatively, you can come up with a trendy social media campaign, which can help your event gain traction and virality on social media channels.
A great way to engage with your donors is to invest in developing and nurturing a personal relationship with them. The end of the fiscal year is an ideal time for your institution to start building and growing an online community that your constituents can benefit from.
While an online community is great for driving engagement, not all potential donors will react the same way to your fundraising asks. For instance, an alum who's been working as an investment banker for 10 years might be more receptive to your fundraising ask than a young alum who's just graduated college and is still reeling under the pressure of repaying his student loan.
Personalizing your fundraising asks ahead of your Giving Day plays a crucial role in building a unique connection with each constituent and paving the way for lasting relationships. We loved how Archbishop Riordan High School's 2017 campaign encouraged alumni to contribute towards improving their school campus.
Use dynamic segmentation to segregate your constituents based on class year, location, donation history, interests, etc. and personalize your emails right from the first message to the final thank you.
While we are nearing the end of another fiscal year, we are nowhere near the end of the pandemic that has forced us to reinvent the wheel. The situation we find ourselves in isn't exactly conducive for hosting in-person events. However, virtual events are all the rage right now, and the right idea and execution might just make an ordinary event extraordinary.
Over the last year, we have seen many exemplary virtual events that were executed by various institutions, both big and small.
Many institutions have seen a steady rise in participation at virtual events because they're easily accessible irrespective of location or time. Virtual events, therefore, can help you tap into a wider network of donors and be a valuable addition to your marketing plan during the end of the fiscal year.
As online engagement becomes pivotal for a successful Giving Day campaign, it is equally important to make the best use of the channels at your disposal. Social media is the ideal place to meet and connect with new people, with platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook enabling you to explore potential donors. Calvert Hall College's picture slideshow on Facebook went viral which helped them boost their fundraising campaign.
While you may already be connected with some of your donors on shared groups, use the network of your existing supporters to influence new donors. In addition to social media, emails and personal one-on-one calls are popular channels employed by most institutions for fundraising asks.
In case you feel ghosted by your alumni, having the right strategy in place might help ensure that your ask never goes unacknowledged.
Now that you have done your bit to promote the campaign, how can you leverage your supporters to maximize the impact? Your donors are the ones who can carry your fundraising campaign forward by spreading the word through their networks.
You can find ways to make social sharing easy for donors and create more incentives for them to influence others in their network. For example, encourage your supporters to broadcast and share their contributions on social media. Offer them a customized template and prompt them to share this message on social media right after they've completed a gift.
You can also create a filter for Instagram or Facebook that donors can apply to their profile photos. Seeing their peers support their alma mater's cause can act as a strong driving factor for other constituents to contribute to the same cause. Here are other ways to build stronger online communities in today's times.
Gamification techniques like leaderboards, challenges, and tributes are additional great ways that help invoke a healthy sense of competition amongst various constituent groups and hence amplifying the impact of gifts during your Giving Day.
We understand how planning and executing a successful Giving Day can be a nightmare for people behind the scenes. We hope that this article gives you some inspiration for your fiscal year-end Giving Day in 2021.
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Liberal Arts Colleges: 5 Fundraising Tips To Boost Your Fiscal Year-End Giving Day
Are you a liberal arts institution looking for ideas to boost fundraising at your fiscal year-end Giving Day? Here are 5 strategies to help you drive year-end gifts & engage donors at your upcoming Giving Day campaign.
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