Giving Tuesday lands on December 1 this year, and the organizations that reach their goal have their donation page live well before then. Here's the setup worth doing in September, while there's no deadline pressure.
Build the donation page first
Preset gift amounts do a lot of quiet work — donors give more when they don't have to decide what's appropriate. Add your story, a photo, and a goal your supporters can watch move.
Line up matching gifts and promo codes
If you have a board member or business sponsor willing to match, September is when you ask. Promo codes let you track which appeal, email, or partner actually brought the gift in.
Connect payments and your own domain
Stripe deposits straight to your account, and a custom domain means the page reads as yours rather than a third party's — which matters when a donor is deciding whether to trust the form.
Three months out feels early, and that's the point. With the page finished now, November is spent telling your story instead of building the thing that collects the gift.
