GivingTuesday is Tuesday, December 1 this year, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It's one of the biggest philanthropic giving days of the year, and plenty of smaller churches let it slip by because putting together a "campaign" sounds like a lot of work.

Here's some good news: if your church takes online donations, your giving platform has probably already done half the work for you.

Start with what you already pay for

Most churches use a giving tool: Givelify, Tithe.ly, Pushpay, Planning Center Giving, or something similar. These companies want GivingTuesday to go well for you, because when you raise more, they do too. So many of them put out free tools every fall.

Take Givelify as an example. They offer a free GivingTuesday toolkit for congregations that includes:

• A step-by-step campaign guide
• Ready-to-share social media posts
• Email and announcement templates
• Tips for getting the most out of online and mobile giving

That's your whole campaign plan, written by people who see what works across thousands of churches. You just fill in your church's story.

Using a different platform? I keep a list of the GivingTuesday kits from 10 church giving platforms, with what's inside each one and how current it is: GivingTuesday Resources for Churches.

Put your giving link everywhere

The single most useful thing your platform gives you is a direct giving link. One tap, and someone is on your church's giving page.

In Givelify, for example, you'll find it under Giving tools > Online giving, then Copy Link. They also have a Social Media Giving page with share options for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Once you have the link, put it:

• In your email newsletter, as a button, not buried in a paragraph
• On Facebook, in a post and pinned to the top of your page
• In your Instagram bio, the only spot on Instagram where a link is clickable
• In your YouTube livestream description, so online worshippers can give in the moment
• On a QR code for your bulletin and screens

Give people a reason, not just a link

GivingTuesday works best when people know what they're giving to. Instead of "Please support our church," try something specific:

• "Help us stock our food pantry for the winter."
• "Help us buy new hymnals for the sanctuary."
• "Help us send 10 kids to youth camp next summer."

A clear goal and a real story beat a general appeal every time.

A simple four-week plan

• This week: Pick your cause and goal. Grab your platform's toolkit and giving link.
• The week before Thanksgiving: Announce it from the pulpit and in your newsletter.
• Thanksgiving week: Share a short story or photo about the cause.
• Tuesday, December 1: Post in the morning, remind at lunch, thank everyone that evening.

Then do the step most churches skip: say thank you. A short thank-you message, with what you raised and what it will do, builds trust for next year.

Need help writing the appeal? This week's issue of The Church Office has an AI prompt that gets you a starter draft.