Donor economics
A Fundraising Calendar for 2027: Plan the Other Eleven Months
December brought about 18% of 2025 charitable revenue, counting offline and online gifts. This calendar plans the other eleven months, pairing each ask with updates that ask for nothing.
By Donor Insights · Published November 7, 2026 · Updated September 25, 2026 · 8 min read
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Key takeaways
- December accounted for roughly 18% of annual charitable revenue in 2025, and the fourth quarter for more than 36%, across 7,500+ organizations in Blackbaud Institute data, so about 82% of the year's giving arrived outside December.
- Nonprofits sent an average of 50 emails per subscriber in 2025, 31 of them fundraising appeals, while lists grew 5% and lost 12% of subscribers to unsubscribes (M+R Benchmarks 2026).
- Donors at 771 mid-sized and large nonprofits made an average of 4.15 gifts a year (Virtuous's 2026 benchmark report), so for many donors giving is spread through the year, and a calendar should be too.
- A 2027 fundraising calendar can schedule one clear ask campaign in most months and at least one update that asks for nothing, such as a thank-you, a report, or a story, between each pair of asks.
- Key 2027 dates: giving statements by January 31, GivingTuesday on November 30, and the year's last giving day on Friday, December 31.
A fundraising calendar for 2027 should spend most of its planning on the eleven months that are not December, because that is where most of the money arrives. December accounted for roughly 18% of annual charitable revenue in 2025 and the fourth quarter for more than 36%, according to the Blackbaud Institute's 2025 Trends in Giving, which draws on giving data from more than 7,500 organizations and counts offline and online gifts. That leaves about 82% of the year's giving outside December. The calendar below plans January through November month by month, and it pairs every ask with at least one message that asks for nothing.
Why should a fundraising calendar plan beyond December?
The December share is large enough to draw attention and small enough to mislead. At about 18%, December alone brings in more than twice the average share of the other eleven months (about 7% each), but a plan that treats the rest of the year as waiting time leaves roughly four of every five dollars unplanned. Donors also give more than once a year. In the Virtuous 2026 benchmark report, covering 771 mid-sized and large U.S. nonprofits, donors made an average of 4.15 gifts a year. The report publishes no cutoff for its top performers, so their higher figure is left out here. A donor who gives several times a year needs reasons to give in spring and summer, not only a year-end letter.
Other benchmarks put December higher. The fundraising chapter of M+R Benchmarks 2026 reports that nonprofits received 37% of their 2025 online revenue in December. The two figures differ because M+R reports online revenue, while Blackbaud's figure covers all charitable revenue. For an annual plan covering every way donors give, the all-revenue figure is the one that matches. The Blackbaud Institute's own advice points the same way: it recommends that fundraising teams use the first half of the year to develop relationships and test messaging, so the fourth quarter has something to build on.
How many asks should a fundraising calendar hold?
The email data gives a baseline for what donors already receive. In M+R Benchmarks 2026, drawn from 180 participating nonprofits, organizations sent an average of 50 emails per subscriber in 2025, and 31 of those were fundraising appeals. That leaves 19 messages a year that were not appeals. Over the same year, email lists grew 5%, while 12% of the subscribers organizations started the year with unsubscribed and another 4% became unreachable because messages bounced. By our arithmetic, lists grew only because new sign-ups more than replaced the 16% of subscribers they lost.
No study sets the right number of asks, as our guide to ask frequency explains. What an annual calendar can control is the mix. The plan below schedules an ask campaign in most months and places at least one "give" between each pair of asks. A give is a message that asks for nothing: a thank-you, a report on what gifts did, a story, or a short survey. Donors say this kind of message matters to them. In Bloomerang's 2026 Giving Signals survey of more than 1,000 active U.S. donors, conducted with The Harris Poll, 94% said they are motivated to give when an organization tells them exactly where their money will go, and 90% said the same about impact reporting, according to Bloomerang's release. Those are stated motives, not measured behavior, but they describe what a give should contain.
What does a month-by-month 2027 fundraising calendar look like?
The table is a template for a small organization on a calendar fiscal year. It is practitioner guidance, not a tested schedule. An organization whose fiscal year ends June 30 should move its main midyear ask to May and June.
| Month | Ask | Give (asks for nothing) | Planning job |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | None | Thank-you and year-end results. Giving statements out by January 31 | Review last year's results by donor group |
| February | Monthly-giving invitation to December's first-time donors | First report on what year-end gifts are doing | Set the year's goals and messages |
| March | Spring appeal, first send | Two-question donor survey | Write spring appeal and thank-you together |
| April | Spring appeal, final send | Story from a program, with permission | Thank every spring donor within days |
| May | None | Impact update, with one concrete result | Plan midyear appeal |
| June | Midyear appeal | Thank-you to volunteers | Check midyear results against goal |
| July | None | Midyear report: what January to June gifts did | Segment the file for fall |
| August | Monthly-giving invitation to repeat donors | Behind-the-scenes story | Draft year-end theme and GivingTuesday goal |
| September | Fall appeal | Thank-you calls to recent first-time donors | Build GivingTuesday page and emails |
| October | None | Annual impact report | Write year-end appeals and thank-yous |
| November | GivingTuesday, November 30 | Thank donors before Thanksgiving, November 25 | Schedule year-end sends |
| December | Year-end appeal series to December 31 | Note on the $1,000 / $2,000 deduction for people who do not itemize | Record every gift received by December 31 |
Four dates in the table come from outside the organization. Giving statements go out by January 31 because IRS Publication 1771 notes that charities typically send written acknowledgments by then, and any single gift of $250 or more needs one before the donor can deduct it. GivingTuesday falls on the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving, which in 2027 puts Thanksgiving on November 25 and GivingTuesday on November 30. December 31, 2027 is a Friday. And the December note refers to the deduction that lets people who do not itemize deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly, which Public Law 119-21 made permanent starting with tax year 2026.
What does the first 2026 data say about the year ahead?
The most recent Fundraising Effectiveness Project data is mixed, which argues for a calendar that keeps donors rather than one that only asks harder. In the first quarter of 2026, dollars raised were up an estimated 4.3% on the first quarter of 2025, and the number of donors was down 0.8%, according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project's Q1 2026 report. Donor counts and dollars grew in every size group except micro donors, those giving $1 to $100, which were still declining. Retention, the share of last year's donors who gave again, fell in every size group except micro donors, the only group where it improved. The report also introduced the project's first major methodology update in five years, so compare its figures with earlier quarters carefully.
A calendar cannot change the sector, but it can change what an organization's own donors hear between asks. Micro donors are the only size group still shrinking in count, which makes the messages they hear between asks worth planning. The gives in the table cost little to produce, and they are the months in which a donor giving $25 hears what that gift did.
How do you build your own 2027 calendar this month?
Build the calendar in November, before year-end work takes every hour. Our year-end campaign playbook covers the last nine weeks of the year in detail. For the rest:
- 1.Pull last year's gifts by month from your own records, and compare your December share with the 18% all-revenue benchmark.
- 2.Mark the fixed dates first: statements by January 31, your fiscal year-end, GivingTuesday on November 30, and December 31.
- 3.Place one ask theme in each month you plan to ask, and name the donor group each ask is for.
- 4.Put at least one give between each pair of asks, with a concrete result in every one.
- 5.Write each campaign's thank-you at the same time as its appeal, so the thanks goes out within days of the gift.
- 6.Review the calendar each quarter against gifts per donor and retention, not revenue alone.
The first and last steps depend on your own numbers. Donor Insights reads your contacts and gifts, so the month-by-month share of giving, gifts per donor, and retention by donor group are figures you can check each quarter rather than rebuild from spreadsheets. The methodology starts from your own giving records, and the platform shows whether the gives between asks are keeping donors through the other eleven months.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a fundraising calendar?
- It is a month-by-month plan of an organization's asks, its updates that ask for nothing, and the planning work behind each. A useful one names the donor group for each ask and schedules a thank-you for every campaign.
- How much of the year's giving comes in December?
- Roughly 18% of 2025 charitable revenue, counting offline and online gifts, and more than 36% in the fourth quarter, in Blackbaud Institute data from more than 7,500 organizations. Online giving alone is more concentrated at year-end, so online-only benchmarks show a higher December share.
- How many fundraising appeals should we send in a year?
- No study sets the right number. For a baseline, nonprofits sent an average of 31 fundraising appeals per email subscriber in 2025 out of 50 total emails (M+R Benchmarks 2026). A calendar can keep the mix healthy by placing at least one message that asks for nothing between each pair of asks.
- When is GivingTuesday 2027?
- Tuesday, November 30, 2027. GivingTuesday is the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving, which falls on Thursday, November 25, 2027.
- When should we send year-end giving statements?
- By January 31. IRS Publication 1771 notes that charities typically send written acknowledgments by then, and a donor needs one for any single gift of $250 or more before claiming the deduction.
Sources
- Blackbaud Institute (2026). 2025 Trends in Giving data spotlight. Press release, March 18, 2026 (2025 data, 7,500+ organizations, all charitable revenue)
- M+R (2026). M+R Benchmarks 2026, email messaging chapter (2025 data)
- M+R (2026). M+R Benchmarks 2026, fundraising chapter (2025 data, December share of online revenue)
- M+R (2026). M+R Benchmarks 2026, introduction and methodology (180 participating nonprofits)
- Virtuous (2026). 2026 Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report. Press release, April 21, 2026 (771 mid-sized and large U.S. nonprofits, data period not stated in the release)
- Bloomerang with The Harris Poll (2026). 2026 Giving Signals Report. Survey of 1,000+ active US donors, March 13-24, 2026
- Fundraising Effectiveness Project (2026). Q1 2026 FEP Report (Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025)
- Internal Revenue Service (2023). Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions: Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements. Rev. 11-2023
- Public Law 119-21 (2025), section 70424, amending IRC 170(p). U.S. Government Publishing Office
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Ask Frequency: How Many Asks a Year Is Too Many?
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Four Gives, One Ask: The 14-Day Nurture Sequence, Built
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