North Texas Giving Day: Get Your Share of the "Super Bowl" of Giving
Since 2009, North Texas Giving Day has raised over $712 million for more than 3,500 local nonprofits. In 2025 alone, 100,000 donors gave more than $78 million in a single day. Around Dallas, people call it the "Super Bowl" of giving, and the numbers back that up. What started as one simple idea has grown into the largest community-wide giving event in the country.
Ahead of this year's Giving Day on September 17th, we sat down with Dala's Senior Fundraising Consultant and VP of Operations, Stuart Williams, CAP, to talk through Dala's approach to nonprofit fundraising and what it takes to stand out on North Texas Giving Day. With over 20 years raising major gifts, Stuart has led fundraising teams, written and managed private and public grants, run donor databases, directed Giving Day campaigns, and executed events and fundraising initiatives that have made a real difference for individuals and communities across North Texas. He's brought that experience to Dala's nonprofit consulting practice, helping organizations across Dallas build stronger, smarter Giving Day campaigns. Here are his key takeaways.
Relationships Are the Real Fundraising Strategy
The nonprofits and causes that raise the most money aren't necessarily the ones with the flashiest campaign. They're the ones that have done the work of building real, lasting relationships.
A Gift Is the Last Step, Not the First
It's tempting to think of fundraising as a single moment. But that moment is just the visible tip of something that's been built for months, sometimes years, before it ever happens.
Use North Texas Giving Day as One Touchpoint in a Larger Strategic Campaign
Don't treat North Texas Giving Day as the answer to a full year of fundraising needs, and don't assume a great campaign and a compelling ask on the day itself is enough to win. Talk to any nonprofit that consistently performs well on Giving Day, and the story is almost always the same: the organizations that raise the most aren't meeting their donors that morning. They're activating relationships they've built all year through an integrated fundraising strategy, one that treats North Texas Giving Day campaigns as a milestone, not the whole plan.
How to Actually Carve Out Your Share
$78 million raised in a single day is a real opportunity, but it's also a crowded field. Capturing a meaningful share of Giving Day dollars, and the campaigns that follow it, takes real thought leadership and a plan built well before September. Here's how nonprofits can separate themselves:
Start the relationship-building months in advance. By the time Giving Day arrives, your most generous donors should already recognize your nonprofit's name from earlier touchpoints: an email, a grant update, a personal thank-you from a past gift. Dala's team works with clients on strategic messaging maps and donor segmentation that support the executive director and development team throughout that relationship journey. This is where fractional development support pays off. Most nonprofits don't have the staff bandwidth to run this kind of groundwork alone.
Make the ask specific and personal. A major gift prospect and a first-time small-dollar donor need very different messages. Dala's nonprofit fundraising strategy builds a customized communication toolkit that speaks to each audience the right way.
Show up consistently across channels. The nonprofits that perform best on Giving Day are usually the ones a donor has already seen in their inbox, their mailbox, and their social feed in the weeks leading up to it. Dala's multi-channel Giving Day campaigns are built to create that kind of repeated presence and consistent message.
Don't let the relationship end when the day does. The nonprofits that grow their fundraising year over year treat Giving Day donors as the start of a relationship, not the end of one. Following up, reporting back on impact, and staying in touch builds the kind of rapport that turns a one-time gift into years of support.
Giving Day works because it turns a full year of relationship-building into a single, focused moment of generosity. That's exactly where Dala's fractional fundraising practice adds the most value for nonprofit leaders. Our team handles prospect research, donor stewardship, and relationship-building all year long, so when Giving Day arrives, our nonprofit clients already have a base of people ready to say yes, or to unlock that coveted matching gift.
If you're looking for fractional fundraising or fractional development support for your nonprofit, or you need help building a North Texas Giving Day campaign for 2027, get in touch. Dala provides nonprofit consulting and support year-round, not just in September.
And if you'd like to learn more about the organizations we're supporting this year on North Texas Giving Day, check out their profiles here: