How to raise more this Giving Tuesday with Crowdfunder

by Rebecca Hughes | Aug 18, 2026 | Uncategorised

This year, Giving Tuesday falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026. After the spending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s the one day in the calendar built entirely around generosity, and on Crowdfunder, more people give, more often, than on any other Tuesday of the year. Here’s how to make sure your campaign is ready to catch that lift.

What is Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday started in 2012 in New York, as a simple counterpoint to the shopping frenzy on either side of it. It’s now marked in more than 90 countries, and in the UK it’s been led by the Chartered Institute of Fundraising since 2022. They run the official UK campaign each year and this year we’re here to make sure your campaign is in the best possible shape to benefit from it.

Read the blogs we wrote for the CIOF:

Why it’s worth planning around, on Crowdfunder

28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical November or December Tuesday on Crowdfunder (Crowdfunder platform data, 2019 to 2025)
Over half of Christmas pledges (54%) come through direct shares like WhatsApp and email, not public posts, so a Giving Tuesday push works best as a message to your list, not just a social post (Crowdfunder platform data, 2022 to 2025)

How to actually use the day

Giving Tuesday is a 24-hour window, and a good third of that is spent asleep. That changes the maths compared with a normal campaign launch, where we’d usually tell you the first 48 hours are what count. For Giving Tuesday, the day itself isn’t your starting line, it’s your push moment within a campaign that’s already moving.

A sequence that works:

The Friday before: this is your real launch day. Get your page live, shiny, and ready.
The weekend: bring in your first pledges from friends, family and your closest supporters. A campaign that already has momentum is far more persuasive to everyone else.
Monday: check everything, your story, your rewards, your target, is in the shape you want it to be seen in. Prep your audience for the following day, you could post a count down on socials.
Tuesday: send your ask first thing in the morning. That gives it time to be seen and shared well before Crowdfunder’s own evening peak of 5pm to 8pm.
Wednesday: don’t go quiet. Say thank you, and keep the campaign visible for anyone who missed the day itself.

A few other things worth knowing before the day arrives:

If you’re planning a prize draw and match funding together, they can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. Decide which one this campaign is before you launch, our sector guides below can help you sequence the two across the year.
If you already have a match funding partner lined up, ask whether they run their own Giving Tuesday boost on top of their standard match rate. Some do, and it’s worth asking rather than assuming either way.
If you’re a registered charity, don’t forget Gift Aid. It turns a £100 donation into £125 at no extra cost to your donor, and it’s easy to miss in the rush of a campaign if you haven’t set up your declaration in advance.

You don’t have to wait for one big moment each year

A lot of Christmas fundraising advice treats one annual match-funding event as the only way in, and if you miss it, you wait until next year. Crowdfunder doesn’t work that way. New match funding partners are added to the platform throughout the year, so there’s no single 16-week form to fill in, and no single date that decides whether you get support this year or not. Your dashboard now shows you which funds you’re eligible for as they open, so you can plan around whichever moment actually suits your campaign, Giving Tuesday included.

Make it part of a bigger strategy

Giving Tuesday works best as one moment inside a longer plan, not a strategy on its own. A single well-timed prize draw can do well at Christmas, but so can four or five smaller ones spread across the year, each one building the list of supporters you bring back for the next. And every campaign you run, whatever it raises, is evidence of something funders care about: that you can mobilise a community around your cause. That’s worth having on record long after this Giving Tuesday has passed.

Where this fits in your wider Christmas campaign

Giving Tuesday is one day within a longer run-up to Christmas. For the full six-week planner, start with Festive fundraising 101. Or go straight to the guide for your sector.

FAQs

Do I need to launch my campaign on Giving Tuesday itself? No. Ideally you’re already live before the day arrives, and you’re using Giving Tuesday as a push moment within that campaign.

What’s the difference between Giving Tuesday and Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Giving Tuesday is a day for generosity, positioned as the deliberate counterpoint to the shopping-focused days that come right before it.

Can I run a prize draw and get match funding on Giving Tuesday? Not on the same project. Prize draws and partner match funding can’t run together on Crowdfunder, regardless of the day. Take a look at match funding and prize draws for charities to see which fits your campaign.

Does Giving Tuesday fall on the same date every year? No. It’s tied to the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving, so the date moves each year. In 2026, that’s 1 December.

Is Giving Tuesday only for registered charities? No. Schools, CICs, sports clubs, faith groups and community groups all take part, alongside registered charities.

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