Paid Media Does Not Work Alone

In our GivingTuesday white paper, we talked about how paid media was key to 2025 success. But our 2025 GivingTuesday data also reinforces an important truth: Paid media can scale most effectively when there is a healthy and growing supporter file behind it.

Across Moore digital clients, GivingTuesday revenue increased 19% year over year, and the number of gifts increased 24%. That growth came from reaching more supporters and expanding audiences in ways that allowed downstream channels to perform.

Paid Media Depends on Who Is Already in the Building

The paid channels that performed well on GivingTuesday rely on existing or modeled audiences. Social, programmatic, and display advertising depend on strong data and targeting. Texting programs often perform best when they can draw from known supporters or carefully modeled prospects. All can (and should) be used for donor acquisition.

When the number of supporters declines and there is no plan to refill the top of the funnel, paid media performance becomes harder to sustain, regardless of how well campaigns are executed. Paid media can amplify opportunity, but it cannot advertise to existing supporters who aren’t there.

The Cost of a Shrinking File

The 2025 results show clear signs of pressure on organic channels. Organic web donations declined 28% year over year. Email revenue remained relatively flat, with the number of gifts increasing while average gift declined. These results underscore the challenge of relying on static or shrinking files during a fundraising moment like GivingTuesday.

Without intentional investment in omnichannel acquisition and list growth, even well-optimized programs face limits. GivingTuesday magnifies those limits because it compresses demand into a short time frame. The time to build the ark is before the rain starts falling.

How Organizations Built the Funnel in 2025

Several strategies contributed to healthier, more scalable supporter files going into GivingTuesday.

Texting programs expanded significantly. Revenue from texting increased 30%, while the number of gifts grew 69%. Average gift declined, consistent with reaching broader and more marginal audiences. Many organizations expanded texting by appending modeled audiences, including direct mail response segments and lapsed supporters. Because peer-to-peer texting does not require opt in, it allowed organizations to introduce new supporters when guided by giving propensity modeling.

Email acquisition also played a role. In its first year, SimioCloud Email Acquisition delivered new donor leads based on real donation behavior from the SimioCloud co-op. One organization that added a newly acquired email file just before GivingTuesday recovered half of its initial acquisition investment during the GivingTuesday campaign alone, demonstrating the value of acquisition even within a short time horizon.

Mail and file-building efforts continued to provide foundational support. Direct mail response audiences and modeled segments fed digital programs, helping organizations maintain scale across channels that depend on known supporters.

And, of course, organizations used paid media more and more, especially on GivingTuesday, for acquisition of new supporters. Even if acquisition brings your overall ROAS down a bit, it’s well worth it to use GivingTuesday 2025 to make GivingTuesdays 2026-2030 a success.

The Strategic Lesson for GivingTuesday and Beyond

The strongest GivingTuesday programs are not built in isolation. They are the result of year-round investment in audience growth, data, and integration across channels. Paid media can accelerate results, but is most effective when there is a robust pipeline of supporters to reach.

As organizations look ahead to GivingTuesday 2026, the opportunity is not just to refine paid tactics. It is to invest intentionally in building and replenishing supporter files so that paid channels have the audiences they need to perform when GivingTuesday arrives.

We share more detailed results and channel-level findings in our whitepaper, The ROI of GivingTuesday. The data shows that GivingTuesday growth starts well before the day itself, and that organizations building their funnels today are best positioned to scale tomorrow.