The 75-Day Sprint to Giving Tuesday 2025

How real teams actually get it done from T-75 to T+2

At 8:57 a.m. last Giving Tuesday, the first “We’re in!” gift hit the dashboard. Our social lead dropped a donor shout-out in Slack, the match meter ticked up, and someone yelled from across the room, “Page speed is clean.” That little moment—the first signal that the machine is working—doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of 10 weeks of tidy, repeatable moves. If you want that feeling on December 2, here’s the plan we run when the clock reads T-75.

Start with one clear promise

Before you open a spreadsheet, write a seven-word promise and a one-line proof. Put them at the top of every doc and asset.

  • Promise: “Your $35 funds one day of safe care.”
  • Proof: “Last year 1,204 neighbors received services.”

This centers the team. No wandering theme, no clever detours. When the copy gets long, we cut back to those two lines.

Appoint owners, set the beat

We keep roles simple: Campaign Lead, Content, Data/CRM, Web/Tech, Stewardship, Partnerships, Paid/Social, Ambassadors. We stand up a 15-minute daily check-in to unblock work and a 30-minute weekly review to kill or scale tests. Every deliverable has a single accountable owner. No group projects.

Build one dashboard on day one

Traffic, conversion rate, revenue by source, CPA, new vs. returning, and monthly opt-ins. The data lead drafts it early using last year’s fields, so we aren’t wiring UTMs at midnight the week of.

T-75 to T-60: Take inventory like a pro

This first stretch sets the table. We write a one-page brief, then we hunt for assets we already have:

  • Three short beneficiary stories, two program stats, one staff quote, one board quote.
  • Fifteen usable photos and two B-roll clips.
  • A donation page trimmed to 45 words + three bullets + one button. Digital wallets on. ACH on. Captchas off. One page only.

We also sketch the segments we’ll speak to: new, lapsed 13–36 months, current monthly, mid/major, volunteers, peer fundraisers. Then we invite 20 friendly faces into a tiny ambassador program. Each gets a tracked link, three ready-to-post captions, and a 60-second talk track.

Ambassador DM example:
“Hey! I’m raising $350 for [Org] on Dec 2. Will you chip in $35 that day? Here’s my link: [tracking link].”

On the website, we add a light “Early Access to Giving Tuesday” email capture with a plain promise and the date. When a supporter opts in, they know exactly what they’ll get: reminders, match news, and a personal note from us on the day.

T-60 to T-45: Put your dates in ink

We publish a simple channel calendar and stop debating:

  • Email: 7 sends—T-35 warm-up, T-28 match announce, T-14 story, T-7 countdown, T-1 eve, T-0 morning, T-0 afternoon.
  • SMS (opt-in only): T-1, T-0 morning, T-0 power hour.
  • Organic social: 3×/week until T-14, then daily.
  • Paid: gentle retargeting from T-45, scale from T-14 through T-0.

Next, we chase multipliers. We create a one-pager for sponsors with three options: dollar-for-dollar up to $X, unlock at Y gifts, or hour-based power boosts. As soon as one signs, we publish a public timetable so supporters can plan their gift for maximum impact.

Creative gets kitted now: one hero image with square and vertical crops, three story cards, two short reels, four quote graphics, five email banners. We prewrite ten subject lines and ten social hooks. Half will never see daylight. That’s fine. We’re buying optionality.

T-45 to T-30: Automate the obvious, test the risky

We switch on three automations:

  1. Abandoned donation reminders at 2 hours and 24 hours.
  2. Viewed-page-no-gift follow-up at 24 hours.
  3. Post-gift upsell: “Make it monthly” and “Share your why.”

Then we pre-register tests, each with a kill/scale rule:

  • Landing page headline A/B.
  • Ask ladder by segment.
  • Subject line theme: Impact vs Match vs Deadline.
  • Button copy: “Donate now” vs “Give by Tuesday.”
  • Social format: short video vs image carousel.

Our data lead walks the team through UTMs like a flight check. Every asset gets source, medium, campaign, and content. We also stand up a live donor roll with first name + initial and city, with an easy opt-out. Social proof drives momentum on the day.

T-30 to T-21: Go public, rally your people

We announce. Email at T-28: “We go live on December 2.” If a match is locked, we say so. We pin a social announcement and add a slim GT banner to the site nav with the date and a clear CTA.

Ambassadors get their kit and a 20-minute kickoff call. We keep it friendly and focused: why this matters, how to ask, when to post, how to find their link. A very plain leaderboard—just a shared sheet—goes live with weekly updates.

We email a 250-word pitch to community outlets, faith bulletins, and neighborhood groups. We offer one strong photo and a story angle, not a press release that smells like marketing.

T-21 to T-14: Turn up the story and the urgency

This is where we earn attention. We send an email with one focused story and one CTA. We post a “two weeks out” video with an authentic voice: a program lead, a volunteer, or a client who agreed to share.

If we have a second match, we pencil it for late afternoon on the day. The energy dip is real around 3–4 p.m. A timed lift keeps the curve alive.

Tech gets a mini load test. We shave anything that makes a phone scroll too far. We also draft a simple status page message we can switch on if the site slows.

T-14 to T-7: Script the day and rehearse the “if/then”

We set up a day-of command center: channel leads, data, tech, stewardship. Monitors show the dashboard. A content queue sits ready. We prewrite 12 plays for common scenarios:

  • If CTR is under 1.5% by 10 a.m., switch to urgency subject lines.
  • If the abandonment rate tops 70%, remove optional fields and simplify the form.
  • If the morning match depletes early, launch a “community challenge” to unlock an extra $X at Y gifts.

Stewardship drafts segmented thank-yous. We keep them short, concrete, and next-step oriented: monthly, volunteer, event, or survey. For high-value givers and first-time donors, we prep a 72-word voicemail script to use that night or the next morning.

T-7 to T-3: Final checks and countdown rhythm

We send the one-week email. We run a daily countdown on social media, using story snippets rather than generic graphics. Paid retargeting turns up. We run three phone tests on the donation flow, make a gift at each ask amount, and confirm that receipts, upsells, and redirects behave on the first try.

A boring chore that saves nights: we verify every trackable link in the entire plan and fix naming consistency right then.

T-2 to T-0: Execute without drama

T-2 (Nov 30): A short “We start Tuesday” note hits early joiners and ambassadors. We post the first power hour on the public timetable.
T-1 (Dec 1): Evening reminder email. Sponsor shout-outs queued. Match meter connected. Donor survey draft ready for T+1.
T-0 (Dec 2): The war room opens with coffee and quiet. Morning launch across email, SMS, and pinned social. Midday story post and progress update. Afternoon match or power hour. Evening pivot to monthly conversion for <$75 gifts.

On the day, we talk like humans. We name donors (with permission), show the meter, and share small wins in real time: “Maria just unlocked the last five backpacks for the 2 p.m. match.”

T+1 to T+2: Close with care, then extend the arc

Within 24 hours we send segmented thank-yous with one sentence of impact and a single, optional next step. Sponsors and ambassadors receive a quick win report with three numbers and one quote.

Within 48 hours we publish a public recap: total raised, number of donors, a highlight story, and what’s next. We spin up a gentle “keep it going” monthly drive to anyone who clicked but didn’t give and to donors under $75.

What we watch like hawks

Not every metric matters on the day. These do:

  • Conversion rate by source
  • Cost per gift on paid media
  • New donors added
  • Monthly opt-in rate
  • Match remaining and gifts unlocked
  • Form abandon rate and page load time

When a number sags, we run the prewritten play. No Slack debates. Decide, ship, measure.

Common pitfalls and the fast fixes

  • Spray-and-pray messaging. Fix: segment today into new, lapsed, monthly, volunteers.
  • Copy walls. Fix: 45-word intro, bullets, one CTA.
  • No next step. Fix: add a single monthly upsell and a 3-question survey link.
  • Match confusion. Fix: publish simple rules and a public timetable, then update the meter live.

The point of a sprint plan isn’t to make work. It’s to strip away the noise so your team can do a few things well, on time, together. When 8:57 a.m. arrives and that first gift lands, you’ll feel it: the system is running, because you built it to.

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