The 12 days of year-end giving: a December checklist for charities
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December is the busiest giving month of the year for most charities, and it is also the month when staff are stretched thinnest. Gifts arrive faster, donors expect instant receipts, and the year-end deadline turns a normal week into a sprint. A little planning now makes the whole season calmer. Here are twelve things to do this December, one for each day of Christmas.
Why December needs a plan
Every year we hear the same story from the charities we work with. The giving is wonderful, but the work behind it piles up: e-Transfers to record, receipts to resend, a donor asking whether a gift made on the 31st counts for this year, a monthly donor whose card expired in November. None of it is hard on its own. It is hard when it all lands in the same two weeks.
The checklist below spreads that work out. Some items are about raising more, and some are about making sure every gift is recorded, receipted, and thanked properly.
The twelve days of year-end giving
- Give your donation page a seasonal refresh. Swap in a Christmas photo and one clear sentence about what a gift does this winter, such as "$50 fills a holiday food hamper for a family of four." Keep the form short. A beautiful page with too many fields still loses donors.
- Offer a monthly option. Year-end donors are often your most generous of the year. Give them an easy way to keep going in January with a monthly gift. Our guide to turning one-time donors into monthly sustainers covers the wording that works.
- Let donors give in honor of someone. Plenty of people are looking for a meaningful present for the person who has everything. A gift "in honor of" a parent, teacher, or friend is a perfect fit. We wrote a full guide to running a Christmas tribute giving campaign.
- Make e-Transfers easy (Canada). Many Canadian donors prefer Interac e-Transfer, especially at Christmas. Put the email address, the Autodeposit status, and what to write in the message right on your donation page. Our post on has sample wording.