Giving Tuesday Trends: Key Data Insights for UK Charities

Giving Tuesday falls each year on the Tuesday after the US Thanksgiving weekend, sitting in one of the most competitive stretches of the UK charity calendar: between Remembrance Sunday, the lead-up to the Big Give Christmas Challenge, and the start of December Christmas appeals. For UK Fundraising Managers, it represents a genuine opportunity to capture end-of-year giving momentum, but only if the campaign is built around UK donor behaviour, Gift Aid mechanics, and the right messaging.

To help UK charities plan more effectively, we analysed two years of Zeffy platform data (2023 and 2024) from campaigns run across the US and Canada. The findings below are directional signals for UK Giving Tuesday planning. They are not UK-specific benchmarks. Every UK-specific mechanic, Gift Aid, small-society-lottery raffle rules, UK GDPR consent, and the UK charity calendar, is called out inline where it changes the picture.

A note on currency: all figures in the original dataset are in US dollars. We have converted them to approximate pound-sterling equivalents using a rate of £1 = £1.27 (indicative mid-rate). Treat converted figures as directional; the pattern of relative differences is what matters for UK planning.

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In this article:

• Key takeaways

• How Giving Tuesday donations have grown

• Forms driving the best results on Giving Tuesday

• Messages that matter: insights on content, urgency and match CTAs

• Plan Giving Tuesday around the UK charity calendar

• Methodology

• About Zeffy

• Sharing this research

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Key takeaways

• The average Giving Tuesday donation was 6% higher in 2024 than in 2023.

• 41% of Giving Tuesday donations in 2024 were small (under approximately £40), 43% were medium (approximately £40 to £158), and 16% were large (over approximately £158).

• Giving Tuesday 2024 showed a strong repeater pattern: 38% of donations came from repeat donors, compared with 30% of donations across the rest of the year.

• Match-focused messages yielded the highest average donation on Giving Tuesday in 2024 (approximately £237).

• Urgency-focused messages had the highest conversion rate on Giving Tuesday in 2024 (23%).

• For UK charities, Gift Aid adds 25p per £1 to every qualifying donation from a UK taxpayer. A matched Giving Tuesday campaign becomes materially larger once Gift Aid is claimed on the donor's half of the gift.

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How Giving Tuesday donations have grown

Study insights (Zeffy US and Canada platform data):

• The average Giving Tuesday donation was 6% higher in 2024 than in 2023.

• On average, individual organisations received 4.56 donations in 2024, slightly lower than in 2023 (4.92). The average total donation value per organisation also decreased slightly (approximately £436 from approximately £443).

• The top donation causes for Giving Tuesday 2024 by percentage share of total donation value were: Education (19%), Community Service (14%), Religion (11%), Culture (7%), Social Service (6%), and Animal Welfare (6%).

• Religion saw the most significant increase in percentage share of total donation value from 2023 to 2024 (4%).

• Education saw the most significant decrease in its percentage share of total donation value from 2023 to 2024 (-3%).

UK context: The cause-category breakdown above reflects the Zeffy US and Canada platform mix, not the shape of the UK charity sector. According to NCVO, there are around 170,000 registered charities in England and Wales alone, with approximately £96 billion in total registered-charity income (mid-2024 data). The UK sector's distribution by cause looks quite different from the US Zeffy mix, with social services, culture and recreation, and international causes featuring prominently by expenditure. Use the data above as a pattern guide, not a UK benchmark.

Study insights (Zeffy US and Canada platform data):

• 41% of Giving Tuesday donations in 2024 were small (under approximately £40), 43% were medium (approximately £40 to £158), and 16% were large (over approximately £158). For comparison, 39% of Giving Tuesday donations in 2023 were small, and 45% were medium.

• Large Giving Tuesday donations made up 65% of total donation value in 2024.

• Giving Tuesday 2024 saw a larger share of total donation value come from returning donors (39%) compared with 2023 (35%).

• Giving Tuesday 2024 showed an overall repeater pattern: 38% of donations came from repeat donors, while only 30% of donations throughout the rest of the year came from repeat donors.

UK lens: For UK charities, a gift of approximately £40 from a UK taxpayer is worth approximately £50 to your charity after Gift Aid, the small-donation band still funds real work. Securing a Gift Aid declaration before or at the point of donation is essential; without it, the 25p per £1 reclaim is lost. See the HMRC Gift Aid guidance for declaration requirements.

Study insights (Zeffy US and Canada platform data):

• A larger share of Giving Tuesday total donation value in 2023 came from 4 to 6 days before Giving Tuesday (28%) than in 2024 (25%).

• Giving Tuesday total donation value by time of day:

• 2023: 12 am to 12 pm: 13%; 2 pm to 12 am: 65%; 2 am to 8 am (next day): 21%.

• 2024: 12 am to 12 pm: 15%; 2 pm to 12 am: 67%; 2 am to 8 am (next day): 18%.

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Forms driving the best results on Giving Tuesday

Study insights (Zeffy US and Canada platform data):

• Donation (65%), Event (18%), and peer-to-peer (7%) form types yielded the largest share of donations on Giving Tuesday in 2024. Event forms saw a 2% increase in donation share from 2023, peer-to-peer forms saw a 3% decrease, and Donation forms saw a 2% decrease.

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Messages that matter: insights on content, urgency and match CTAs

Study insights (Zeffy US and Canada platform data):

• Match-focused messages yielded the highest average donation on Giving Tuesday in 2024 (approximately £237). They also yielded the highest average donation in 2023 (approximately £195), and performance increased year on year.

• Urgency-focused messages had the highest conversion rate on Giving Tuesday in 2024 (23%).

• Overall, average donations increased significantly in 2024.

Key recommendations on messaging types:

• Prioritise urgency-based messaging for the highest conversion rates.

• Use match-based messaging for higher-value donations.

• Deploy support-focused messaging for broad appeal and volume.

• Consider combining elements (for example, urgency plus matching) for the strongest overall results.

Top performing call-to-action types:

• Match/double impact CTAs.

• Urgency-based CTAs.

• Support-focused CTAs.

Top performing CTA messages on Giving Tuesday in 2024 (Zeffy US and Canada platform data):

• "Giving Tuesday", average donation approximately £148; message category: Standard; total transactions: 94.

• "HFGDR's #GivingTuesday 2024 Fundraiser", average donation approximately £107; message category: Emotional appeal; total transactions: 54.

• "Giving Tuesday 2024: We did it!", average donation approximately £101; message category: Social proof; total transactions: 94.

Year-over-year insights:

• Most effective message types: 2023: challenge-based messaging led to high performance. 2024: simple, direct messaging showed strong results.

• Language patterns: 2023: heavy use of action verbs and urgency. 2024: more emotional and community-focused language.

• Emotional triggers: 2023: focus on impact and matching opportunities. 2024: emphasis on community and shared achievement.

• Message evolution: a shift from complex to simpler messaging; increased use of emojis and personal touches; more focus on community achievement.

• Successful formulations: clear, direct calls to action; community-focused language; achievement-oriented messaging.

Language pattern insights:

• Most effective verbs: "Double" (highest average donation); "Give" (highest conversion rate); "Support" (highest total value).

• Impact of word count: 2 to 3 words deliver the highest conversion rates; 4 to 5 words produce the highest average donations. There is a clear correlation between brevity and conversion.

• High-converting phrases: "Double Your Impact"; "Give Today"; "Support Our Mission".

Key recommendations on CTAs:

• Lead with action verbs and include community impact.

• Incorporate matching opportunities when available.

• High-converting phrases: "Double Your Impact"; "Support Your Community"; "Join Our Success".

• Language patterns to replicate: action verb plus community focus plus timeframe; personal pronouns plus impact statement; achievement plus social proof.

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Get UK GDPR consent right before you send

Under UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), sending direct e-marketing to individual donors requires a lawful basis, usually explicit consent. The Fundraising Regulator's Code of Fundraising Practice (effective 1 November 2025, with a new Section 9 covering online platform fundraising) requires that direct marketing communications respect donors' preferences and make unsubscribing straightforward.

Before your Giving Tuesday email push, confirm that your mailing list has a clear lawful basis for marketing, that consent records are up to date, and that every message includes a prominent unsubscribe option. This is a UK-specific step that US-focused Giving Tuesday guides routinely skip. For the current guidance on what constitutes a valid lawful basis for charity email marketing, refer to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

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Plan Giving Tuesday around the UK charity calendar

Giving Tuesday is not a bank holiday in the UK. It lands in direct competition with Black Friday and Cyber Monday consumer spending, and sits in a stretch of the year that already presses UK charity donors hard: Remembrance Sunday appeals in November, the Big Give Christmas Challenge (the UK's largest matched-giving campaign), Children in Need, and the main Christmas appeal season through December.

That context shapes how UK Fundraising Managers should approach it.

Three practical steps for UK charities:

• 1. Confirm Gift Aid declarations are in place before the campaign launches. Without a valid declaration from each donor, your charity cannot reclaim the 25p per £1 from HMRC. For a Giving Tuesday push where you are actively recruiting new donors, build the declaration into the donation form rather than chasing it afterwards. See HMRC's Gift Aid guidance for what a valid declaration must include.

• 1. Consider aligning with or running alongside a matched-giving programme. The data above shows match-focused messages drove the highest average donation. In the UK, match funding most often means securing a corporate Champion or trustee pledge before Giving Tuesday, and communicating the match clearly in every message. For Christmas-adjacent campaigns, the Big Give Christmas Challenge is the UK's largest matched-giving week and runs at a similar time of year. Check whether your charity is eligible and whether a Champion match can be lined up in advance.

• 1. Segment by supporter type. Repeat donors gave 38% of Giving Tuesday donations in the 2024 data, versus 30% across the rest of the year. For UK charities, that means your regular-giving supporters on Direct Debit are a distinct segment from one-off card donors responding to a campaign. Tailor the message: existing regular donors need a different ask (perhaps an additional one-off gift or a challenge to recruit a friend) from lapsed or first-time donors.

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Methodology

This study analyses two years of Zeffy platform donation data from 2023 and 2024, drawn from campaigns run by charities and not-for-profits across the United States and Canada. The findings reflect Giving Tuesday donation patterns on the Zeffy platform during those two years.

UK-specific benchmarks, including Gift Aid uptake, small-society-lottery raffle performance, and Direct Debit share of regular giving, are not included in this dataset. Treat the findings as directional signals for UK Giving Tuesday planning, not as UK charity sector benchmarks. Every UK-specific mechanic, from Gift Aid to the Code of Fundraising Practice, is called out inline throughout this article.

Currency conversion: USD figures have been converted to approximate pound-sterling equivalents at a rate of £1 = £1.27 (indicative mid-rate). Converted figures are rounded for readability.

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About Zeffy

Zeffy is a genuinely free fundraising and donor management platform for charities and not-for-profits. No platform fee, no transaction fee, no card fee. Ever.

Globally, Zeffy has helped over 100,000 charities and not-for-profits raise more than £2 billion, saving them tens of millions in fees. In the UK, Zeffy supports charities with donations, event ticketing, memberships, raffles, auctions, and donor management, including Gift Aid handling, all from one free platform.

Zeffy is a Certified B Corporation and supports over 200,000 fundraising campaigns worldwide.

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Sharing this research

Help spread the knowledge. Share these findings noncommercially and link back to this article so your audience can access the full context and data.

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