By Abby Jarvis, Head of Research at Neon One

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The end of the year is one of the most valuable times to connect with your community. It’s your chance to get your donors and other supporters excited about the impact they’ve already made and invite them to continue supporting your work during one of the most joyful times of year.

As you plan the appeals you’ll send in the last few weeks of the year, make sure you consider including three groups of supporters who are often left out of year-end campaigns: recurring donors, GivingTuesday donors, and volunteers. Here’s why each of them deserves a spot on your list plus some pointers on how to talk to them.

1) Recurring Donors

People who create recurring gifts are some of your most dedicated supporters. If they already give on a regular basis, should you include them in your year-end appeals?

Yes! It’s easy to assume that because someone already gives every month, you shouldn’t ask them for anything else. But data shows that this generous group is willing to make one-time donations in addition to their ongoing gift.

In 2024’s Recurring Giving Report, for example, we found that around half of recurring donors made an extra donation on top of their standard monthly gift. And the numbers were even more impressive for brand-new recurring givers: Out of all the donors in the study who had just set up a new recurring gift on GivingTuesday 2023, an astounding 80.33% of them made at least one more gift to that same nonprofit before the end of the year.

Your recurring donors are deeply committed to supporting your work. Instead of skipping over them when you send your end-of-year fundraising letters, take the time to put together a thoughtful appeal that’s tailored to their experiences with your organization.

Open your appeal with gratitude. Acknowledge that your recurring donor is already a generous supporter, thank them for their gift, and tell them what their sustained support has already made possible. Then make your case for an additional gift. 

Whether you invite them to make a one-time donation or to upgrade their existing monthly gift, make sure you focus on why this additional support will be valuable and what it will achieve.

2) GivingTuesday Donors

If you stress about how to engage GivingTuesday donors during the rest of December, you’re not alone! A lot of fundraisers worry about this one. If someone already gave on GivingTuesday, will asking them again before December 31 come across as pushy? Are you over-soliciting them?

While it’s good that you’re being considerate of your donors’ experiences with your nonprofit, our research tells us that you don’t have to worry. In 2024, 3.06% of GivingTuesday donors gave again during the last three days of the year. 47.71% made at least one additional gift sometime during the rest of December (that’s any day that wasn’t either GivingTuesday or the last three days of the month). Some people even gave on GivingTuesday, during the end of the year, and during the rest of December!

That doesn’t mean you should jump straight from GivingTuesday to a second appeal. Instead, remember the virtuous circle: ask for a gift, thank your donor, report their impact, and then repeat the process. 

Immediately after GivingTuesday, thank your donors. A few days later, follow up with them to tell them specifically what their gift accomplished (or will accomplish soon). Once you’ve closed that loop, you can invite them to give again.

You can make this extra effective with some email segmentation. First, run a report of your GivingTuesday donors and use it to create an email list. Then, tweak your base year-end appeal to speak to that specific group of donors. 

Just make sure you use that same list as a suppression list for your other appeal. You don’t want them to receive two nearly-identical asks!

3) Volunteers

It’s common for fundraisers to skip over volunteers when it comes time to send appeals, especially since volunteer management and fundraising are often handled by two different people or departments. 

A fundraiser once shared with me that she used her volunteer list as a suppression list for her appeals. Her reasoning was empathetic—her volunteers already gave their time, energy, and skills to her organization. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful by asking them to do more.

But volunteers are some of the most dedicated people in your entire supporter base, and dedication tends to show up in more than one way.

In The Generosity Report, we found that volunteers gave an average of $234.85 with their first gift. That’s not a small number for a first-time donation! Their financial giving also increased more quickly over time than the baseline we established by looking at the giving patterns of nearly 100,000 nonprofit donors.

This deeply engaged group of people should absolutely be invited to support a cause they’ve already proven they love by making a financial gift. But that appeal will require the same level of thoughtfulness you extend to recurring donors and GivingTuesday supporters. 

When you ask your volunteers to give, remember to acknowledge what they’re already doing for you and thank them for the time and labor they’ve already contributed to your cause. Then, invite them to make an even bigger impact by adding a financial gift to the mix.

Invite All Your Supporters to Get Involved During the End of the Year

The end-of-year fundraising season is a busy one, and you have to make lots of decisions about who to ask for donations, when to ask them, and how to go about it. When you’re in that mode, it’s easy to worry about over-soliciting the people in your database, especially if they’re people who already support you in other ways. Asking recurring donors, GivingTuesday supporters, and volunteers can feel uncomfortable.

When that discomfort arises, remind yourself of these findings. People give to nonprofits because they’re passionate about the work, and that passion comes out in lots of different ways. You should give them the opportunity to show that dedication to your cause at the end of the year… you just need to be thoughtful about how you do it.

Want to dig deeper into how your community gives during this critical season? Download The Generosity Report: Data-Backed Insights for GivingTuesday and End of Year for more insights you can use in your year-end campaign.

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