Volunteering with your PTA can be overwhelming—but you’re not alone. This section offers encouragement from experienced members and a sincere thank-you for everything you do.

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American donors contributed a record-breaking $3.6 million dollars on Giving Tuesday in 2024, making this day one of the most important fundraising dates of the year. It’s a golden opportunity for school groups to hit big financial milestones.
To make Giving Tuesday 2025 successful for your school group, you’ll need to plan your fundraising campaigns well in advance—and we’re here to show you how. Find everything you need to know about Giving Tuesday in 2025 below, including key dates and step-by-step instructions for achieving your goals.
See also: 20 Giving Tuesday Fundraising Ideas
Giving Tuesday is always the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Initially conceived as a way to counterbalance the consumerism commonly associated with Cyber Monday, this special day shines a spotlight on charity and nonprofit organizations (like schools) that need to raise money to do good in their communities and the world at large.
For the next five years, Giving Tuesday falls on the following dates:
2025: December 2
2026: December 1
2027: December 30
2028: November 28
2029: November 27
The money you raise on Giving Tuesday should go towards a meaningful cause, so the first step is to get a sense of what students and their families care about. Here’s how you and your school group can gather this info:
Once you know what you’re raising money for, you’ll need to figure out how to collect and track what you bring in. FutureFund makes this easy by providing ready-to-go fundraising campaigns you can customize and host for free online.
Using our platform also means donors can contribute 24/7, which saves countless hours of volunteer time. Plus, you can automatically track transactions for easy reporting!
Most Giving Tuesday campaigns hosted with FutureFund will be fundraiser campaigns.
These let you:
… and so much more. Learn how to run a fundraiser campaign with FutureFund, then create your campaign and have it ready to launch at least one week before Giving Tuesday.
For good measure, consider running a purchase campaign with FutureFund in the month before Giving Tuesday. You can sell special school spirit wear to promote the main fundraiser.
Need an example? Create custom t-shirts with messages like “I supported [Your School Name] on Giving Tuesday 2025”. Encourage customers to share social media photos of themselves wearing the shirts on Giving Tuesday, along with links to the main fundraiser.
Purchase campaigns let you add items to your online store in FutureFund that visitors can buy—and provide you with easy tools for order fulfillment. Learn about running purchase campaigns in FutureFund here.
Once you create your Giving Tuesday campaign, the next step is to let your school community know about it and encourage them to donate when the big day rolls around.
Here’s how:
FutureFund is FREE for schools, PTAs, and school groups. Start your fundraiser today!
Get StartedYou’ll want to run social media promotions for your Giving Tuesday campaign alongside your email announcements. This gives your campaign extra visibility online and a convenient second hub that makes it easy to direct people to your donation page.
Note: Be aware that if you use Giving Tuesday hashtags, your photos may end up on the official Giving Tuesday social media accounts. Never post photos of students with public hashtags like these unless their parents know their child may end up on an international social media account—and are willing to consent.
We’ve created some free read-only Canva templates to help you make eye-catching Instagram posts for your Giving Tuesday campaign. Click either template below, then select “File” and “Make a copy” to create your own editable version.
Giving Tuesday Canva Template 1
Giving Tuesday Canva Template 2
Running a straightforward fundraiser campaign is just one way to raise money on Giving Tuesday. We’ve put together some suggestions for supplementing your efforts below, but almost any fundraiser can be adapted to support this occasion if you time it correctly.
Explore our Ultimate List of School Fundraisers, then use the tactics below to take your Giving Tuesday campaign even further.
Ask local businesses to match donations up to a certain amount. This strategy doubles the impact your school can make. Learn more about corporation donation matching with FutureFund.
If you have some school staff who are willing to participate, you can add incentives that kids will love. Have a male teacher perform a silly, choreographed dance once you reach a certain number of donations. Or, get the principal to dye their hair a crazy color once you reach a specific dollar amount.
If you have any notable athletes, comedians, or social media influencers in your area, ask them to help you out. Hosting a comedy night, a Q&A session, or even a meet and greet is a powerful way to raise money through ticket sales.
Most households have at least one box of stuff they’d like to get rid of. Coordinating school garage sales is a win-win because families can declutter and the school gets to donate the proceeds!
No matter how your school decides to approach Giving Tuesday, it’s important to recognize the meaning behind this important fundraising opportunity. Kids are inundated with toy commercials and product placement this time of year, but Giving Tuesday lets the adults around them demonstrate the value of generosity on a local and international scale.
The more planning you put into your Giving Tuesday efforts, the more successful they’ll be, teaching students important lessons about compassion and kindness. To learn more about how FutureFund’s tools can help, get started with a demo of our platform.
FutureFund includes the following ready-made campaign types:
Yes! FutureFund lets you generate campaign summaries and other reports in just a few clicks. These reports can help your treasurer with budget reconciliation and ensure your school group remains in compliance with relevant laws and guidelines. Learn more about FutureFund’s reporting tools.
Yes. FutureFund allows you to automatically issue tax receipts in any amount to donors who make at least one tax-deductible purchase in the past calendar year. Learn more about issuing tax receipts with FutureFund.
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