Giving Tuesday is Black Friday for generosity. Here's how Reteti made it count.
Keeper Naomi feeding Lodokejek his midday milk bottle. Photo by Simon Pocock
One day a year that pays for the rest of it
Nobody has to convince anyone that Black Friday is a day to shop. People wake up that morning ready to buy. Four days later, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, they wake up ready to give.
That's Giving Tuesday. It started in 2012 at the 92nd Street Y in New York, landing right after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it has become the biggest giving day of the year. In 2025, 19 million Americans gave money on that one Tuesday, and the day raised $4 billion.
Think about what that means for a small charity. Black Friday does the selling for a shop: the urgency, the "why today", the permission to spend. Giving Tuesday does the same for a nonprofit. The date is already in people's diaries. Their inbox is already full of reasons to give. Your only job is to be the reason they act on.
That's why I think of it as the lowest-hanging fruit on a nonprofit's calendar. People like to give, and on that day they're actively looking for somewhere to put their kindness. Yet most small teams leave the fruit on the tree.
Reteti as an example
Reteti is the first community-owned elephant sanctuary in Africa, in the Mathews Range of northern Kenya. It runs entirely on donations, and the money doesn't arrive evenly. The team's own planning figure is that around 80% of the year's funds come in during the last two months of the year.
Most of that came from a handful of large gifts. The everyday donors, thousands of people who followed the orphans on Instagram and opened our email, gave when they felt like it, in small amounts, with no particular reason to give now.
Giving Tuesday should have been made for us. Reteti is in Kenya, but its online donors are American: four in five of the people who gave on Giving Tuesday 2023 were in the US. Those are exactly the people the day already reaches.
In 2021 we were showing up to it the way most small charities do: one post, one email, a donate button, and hope. And low-hanging fruit has one catch: everyone can reach it.
On the same morning, our supporters were also hearing from Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the African Wildlife Foundation, and Conservation International and so many more…. all with bigger lists and bigger matches and better stories. Simply turning up just wasn't enough.
What I did and what every Giving Tuesday campaign needs
I asked a major donor to put up a match, and made the match the story.
In 2022, a long-standing friend of Reteti agreed to match every gift up to a certain amount That gave us something every donor understands in two seconds: give today and it counts twice. People thanked the matching donor in the comments. The match didn't just add money, it gave people a reason to act on that day and not next week.I studied the organisations doing it best.
Before writing a word, I pulled apart the Giving Tuesday emails from all non-profits I admire - those in conservation and in other sectors. I did a big Giving Tuesday audit :) Sheldrick sent save-the-dates days ahead, split its emails for UK and US donors, counted adoptions in the match and introduced a new orphan on the day. So impressive! I learned from the best and applied those learnings to Reteti.I built a three-act campaign, not a post.
Save the date the day before. Launch email and post on the morning. Update post that evening ("Giving Tuesday is flying by…"). Then a thank-you video sent within 48 hours. Every piece pointed to one landing page with one job.In 2023, I let people give the way they already liked to give.
In 2022 only cash donations counted. But Reteti's supporters loved adopting orphans and gifting milk bottles, so in 2023 we put both inside the match. A $10 bottle of milk became a $20 bottle of milk. A $50 adoption of Long'uro became $100. We'd tested the milk shop on World Elephant Day that August, so the products, the photos and the story of the Milk Mamas who supply the goat milk were ready to go.I wrote personally to last year's best donors.
On the evening of Giving Tuesday, the top Giving Tuesday donors from the previous year each got a personal email asking them to join again. The conversion rate was impressive!I extended the match by a day.
When the 24 hours ran out, we announced the match would run one more day. That second day brought in close to 30% of the 2023 total
The results
While I wont share exact numbers, I want to highlight that small gifts carried Giving Tuesday.
The average gift size was $51.25. Nearly 9 in 10 gifts were $250 or less.
Why Giving Tuesday matters
GivingTuesday 2025 (2 Dec 2025): $4.0 billion given in the US, up 13% on 2024; 38.1 million participants; 19.1 million financial donors. $22.5 billion since 2012. (GivingTuesday)
December brought in 37% of nonprofits' annual online revenue in 2025; the last week of the year 10%; 31 December alone 4%. (M+R Benchmarks 2026 via NonProfit PRO)
Retention: only 24% of new online donors give again the next year, vs 66% of repeat donors. Monthly donors: 71% retained after 12 months. (M+R Benchmarks 2026 via NonProfit PRO)
GivingTuesday 2026 is Tuesday 1 December, eight weeks from today.
Origin: started 2012 by Henry Timms at the 92nd Street Y, New York, with the UN Foundation; held the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. (Wikipedia) Don't claim it was founded as an answer to Black Friday; "lands right after" is safe.
FAQ
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Tuesday 1 December 2026, the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving, following Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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A global day of giving that started in 2012 at the 92nd Street Y in New York. In 2025, Americans gave $4.0 billion on the day.
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“The second best time to plant a tree is today” The earlier the better when it comes to campaign planning. I would suggest a smaller campaign in August or September as a dry run. Four weeks out is the latest that still gives you time to secure a match, build the offer and write every email.
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It gives donors a reason to act today rather than next week. At Reteti, the first match campaign grew Giving Tuesday by 313% in one year.
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A donor who gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year. In December they are your warmest audience, because they've already said yes once.