How to Build a Fundraising Plan That Actually Works

What's the most effective way to raise money for my charity?

I hear this all the time. And my answer doesn't change: quit chasing one-off donations. Build a system that turns supporters into recurring givers. The numbers are clear. Monthly donors have a median annual value of $275. That's nearly three times the $100 median for non-recurring donors (GivingTuesday Data Commons). That's not a rounding error. It's the difference between scrambling every December and actually planning your budget. So if you're a small nonprofit director with limited time, I'd tell you to make recurring giving your top priority.

Picture a small animal shelter

Say you run a no-kill shelter in a mid-sized city. Annual budget: $500,000. You have 2,000 donors, but most give once a year, usually in December. Cash flow is a constant headache. Now imagine you convert just 10% of those donors into monthly givers. That's 200 people. At the median monthly donor value, each brings in $275 a year instead of $100. That's an extra $35,000 annually—a 7% budget increase—from the same donor pool. And that's before compounding. The share of donors on recurring schedules rose from 6.6% in 2021 to 7.9% in 2025, but the median organization still has only about 4% of donors on recurring schedules (GivingTuesday Data Commons). The opportunity is huge. I've seen shelters do this and finally stop worrying about payroll in July.

Why empathy alone won't save your fundraising

Lots of fundraisers lean hard on emotional stories. That's fine. A meta-analysis found empathy is a strong correlate of charitable giving—it reliably increases generosity when evoked (Nature Communications). But here's the thing: perceived effectiveness predicts giving strongly in surveys but only weakly in experiments. Donors say they care about impact, but in the moment, empathy moves them more than a spreadsheet. So use emotion to get the first gift. Then use proof to keep them. Show donors what their previous donations did. That increased subsequent giving by 14% and modestly increased satisfaction (Nature Communications). For our shelter, that means a monthly email with a photo of a rescued animal and a line like, 'Your $25 last month covered the vaccinations for Bella, who was adopted last week.' That's feedback, not just a thank-you.

Tap into donor-advised funds and other giving vehicles

If your donors are affluent, you're leaving money on the table by not mentioning donor-advised funds (DAFs). Total assets in DAFs hit $327.87 billion in FY2024, up 27.9% from FY2023. Contributions were $90.57 billion (up 38.6%), and grants were $64.60 billion (up 17.9%) (DAF Research Collaborative). And 42% of giving Millennials used a DAF in the past year, compared with 13% of Gen X and 10% of Baby Boomers (Financial Planning). So when you talk to younger donors, make it easy for them to recommend a grant from their DAF. For our shelter, that could mean adding a 'Donate from your DAF' button to the website and a note in your newsletter: 'If you have a DAF, you can recommend a grant to us today—it takes two minutes.' One caveat: DAF grants can take weeks to process, so don't count on them for immediate cash flow.

Use GivingTuesday as a launchpad, not a one-day wonder

GivingTuesday 2025 raised an estimated $4.0 billion in the U.S., up 13% from 2024 (GivingTuesday Data Commons). That's a lot of noise, and it's easy to get lost. But the smart play is to use GivingTuesday to acquire new recurring donors. More than 60% of spontaneous donors said they had already given again or were very likely to give again, and 30% said they had already become or were very likely to become regular annual or monthly donors (Blackbaud Institute). So when someone gives on GivingTuesday, immediately follow up with a welcome series that invites them to become a monthly sustainer. The median organization acquires no new recurring donors in any given year, so even a small effort here sets you apart.

Don't ignore volunteering and in-kind support

More than 75.7 million Americans—28.3% of those age 16 and older—volunteered through an organization in 2023. That contributed an economic value of roughly $167.2 billion (AmeriCorps & U.S. Census Bureau). And affluent volunteers donate more than double what non-volunteers give (Bank of America Study of Philanthropy 2025). So if you're not actively recruiting volunteers, you're missing a pipeline of potential major donors. For our shelter, that means creating a dog-walking program that doubles as a donor cultivation event. Every volunteer who walks a dog gets a personal thank-you and an invitation to become a monthly donor. It's not manipulative; it's relationship-building.

Build a recurring-giving engine

If you take one thing from this, make it this: recurring giving is the most reliable, scalable fundraising tactic available to small charities today. The U.S. nonprofit sector is leaving upwards of $20 billion a year in untapped recurring-giving opportunity on the table (GivingTuesday Data Commons). You don't need a massive budget or a fancy CRM. You need a clear ask, a simple sign-up process, and consistent follow-up. Start by converting your most loyal annual donors into monthly givers. Then use tools like DAFs and GivingTuesday to bring in new supporters. And always, always show donors the impact of their gifts. That's how you build a fundraising plan that works.

Sources

• GivingTuesday Data Commons - https://www.givingtuesday.org/blog/recurring-giving/
• Nature Communications (2026) - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s41467-026-70230-8
• DAF Research Collaborative (Annual DAF Report) - https://www.dafresearchcollaborative.org/research/annual-daf-report
• Financial Planning (generational DAF usage) - https://www.financial-planning.com/news/42-of-giving-millennials-using-dafs-with-gen-z-ramping-up-expected-usage
• Blackbaud Institute (2024 Trends in Giving) - https://thenonprofittimes.com/npt_articles/data-proves-donors-showed-up-in-2024/
• AmeriCorps & U.S. Census Bureau - https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/11/civic-engagement-and-volunteerism.html