Every year, Thread Strategies checks in with our nonprofit partners—our “Spool”—to learn how their year-end fundraising campaigns performed and what worked best. In this post, Thread Principal, Liz Siddle, shares insights from our 2025 Spool to Sphere survey, including encouraging results, key trends, and what smaller nonprofits experienced during a particularly challenging fundraising year.

Spool to Sphere is here! Every year, Thread Strategies surveys our clients – our Spool – about their year-end fundraising. We’re eager to find out how they did and what worked well. It’s especially important to us to get a sense of how fundraising is going for smaller nonprofits, since so few of the sector-wide reports and surveys focus on small organizations.

I was nervous about this year’s results. As anyone reading this can attest, nonprofits faced an incredibly challenging set of conditions in 2025, contending with funding cuts, competition for attention, and donors feeling the pinch from affordability issues.

We conducted the survey from January 13-29, 2026. Thread heard from 43 organizations about their 2025 end-of-year (EOY) fundraising. 84% of these organizations also participated in Giving Tuesday, some separately and some incorporating it into their EOY campaigns.

With a drumroll… delighted to see that 71% of respondents raised more than in 2024!

Here are some of the highlights:

Our Spool set higher goals than last year….and exceeded them.
- 51% said their 2025 goal was higher than 2024, while 31% said it was the same. When asked how their EOY fundraising performed against the goal, 67% of respondents said they exceeded the goal.
Donors were willing to give general operating support funds.
- The vast majority (74%) of organizations asked for general operating support—the kind of funding that’s vital to financial stability.
A few organizations raised more than $200,000, but most raised between $1 and $199,999.

The picture is less rosy when we look at Giving Tuesday separately. We asked respondents about Giving Tuesday as distinct from the rest of their end-of-year campaign. Only 40% said they raised more in 2025, with 22% saying they raised less.

Another couple of interesting findings:

Donation activity was highest in late December. We asked the Spool when they received the most donations. 40% said the last three days of the year, and 27% said the middle of December. Only 18% said on/around Giving Tuesday.
Email, direct mail, and Facebook were the most popular communication channels. We asked the Spool about the communications methods they used in their EOY campaigns. Most respondents used at a least four. Here’s a look:

I have to admit, I was a little surprised the news was so good. 71% of organizations raising more than 2024 was not what I expected from this past year. My takeaway is that the basics work. Spool to Sphere 2025 respondents have reminded me that individual giving best practices, when planned thoughtfully and executed well, result in successful EOY campaigns.

My favorite finding of all was that so many of the respondents are keeping their donors engaged consistently. Thread asked, “Which of the following best describes your organization’s individual giving efforts outside of your end-of-year campaign in 2025?.” Here’s what respondents said:

With engagement like this, it’s no surprise that our Spool had such success with their EOY fundraising even in a year like 2025. After all, maintaining strong, authentic relationships with your donors is the most effective way to raise funds.

If you have questions, let us know! And take a look through our website and YouTube channel for resources to use for your 2026 fundraising campaign.

Thank you to all the organizations who participated in the survey. Happy Fundraising!

Thread's 2025 Spool to Sphere Results