Choose One Big Ask for Giving Tuesday and Repeat It Everywhere

Your Giving Tuesday audience will see your campaign in pieces. They will read a subject line, glance at a post, and hear a short announcement. Each piece has a few seconds to answer one question: what do you want me to do?

The answer should be the same every time. That answer is your one big ask, and you have 41 days to make it famous.

What a Single Ask Looks Like

A strong ask has 3 parts that fit in one sentence: the action, the amount or range, and the outcome. Use this template and fill in the blanks:

Your gift of $____ provides ____ for ____.

Imagine a youth mentoring program that asks every supporter to fund one month of mentoring for one student. The action is giving. The outcome is a month of mentoring. The beneficiary is one student. A volunteer can say that in a single breath.

Why Several Asks Weaken a Campaign

When you offer a donation, a volunteer sign-up, a petition, and a share request in the same email, your reader has to choose. Each choice costs attention. Many readers will choose none.

Secondary actions can still exist. Place them after the main ask is complete, on a thank-you page or in a follow-up message. Giving Tuesday itself welcomes goods, time, and voice alongside gifts, and your team can invite those after the first yes.

Where the Ask Appears

Use the exact same wording in every place a supporter might meet your campaign:

1. The subject line of your launch email.
2. The first line of every social post.
3. The headline on your donation page.
4. The announcement your leaders make in person.
5. The text message you send on December 1.

Keeping the wording identical makes the ask familiar by the second time your audience sees it.

A Quick Check Before You Commit

Read the ask to someone outside your team. Ask them to repeat it back. If they can say what you want them to do and what it makes possible, the ask is ready. If they paraphrase it loosely, tighten the wording.

Next Step

Choosing your one big ask is Lesson 1.3 in the Giving Tuesday Campaign Blueprint. We are releasing a suite of workshops because we believe more nonprofits' missions should be funded. So many good causes have their impact throttled by funding limits, and a clear ask gives your supporters an easy way to change that.

Choose your one big ask inside the Campaign Blueprint course. Tomorrow we build the calendar around it.