Evergreen + Trend: The Secret Sauce for Fundraising Growth Beyond Donations
November 8, 2025
byGiveable Research
In fundraising today, you cannot rely solely on a single tactic. For long‑term growth you need both the evergreen foundation and the trend‑based momentum.
Evergreen content is content that remains relevant and useful over time. Foundation Marketing+2Verkeer+2 Meanwhile, trend‑based content taps into current conversations and spikes in attention—offering immediate reach. lazylines.ai+1
When you apply this to fundraising. Meaning you are not just chasing donations but building a sustainable fundraising ecosystem. You create a dual engine: one part builds the trust, authority, and long‑term pipeline (evergreen) and the other part captures bursts of attention, new supporters, and fundraising momentum (trend).
This blend gives your organization the ability to raise funds now, and raise more funds later through community, peer supporters, repeat fundraisers, and ongoing campaigns.
What does this look like for fundraising campaigns
Let’s walk through how this mix can manifest in real fundraising contexts with concrete examples.
Example A – Evergreen content for fundraising
Your nonprofit publishes a comprehensive guide: “How to Become a Monthly Fundraiser for [Your Cause]”. This guide explains the impact of sustained giving, how to start a fundraising page, and common questions. Because it answers evergreen questions, it attracts new interested supporters year after year. It acts like a pillar for your fundraising strategy.
Example B – Trend‑based campaign for fundraising
Next, your organization jumps into a timely conversation: maybe an international awareness day related to your mission, or a viral social‑media challenge linked to your cause. On that day you launch a mini‑campaign: “Raise for 24 hours. Join the trending challenge and recruit friends.” This taps into immediate momentum and brings new voices and donors into your ecosystem.
Example C – Hybrid execution: mixing both
You take your evergreen guide (Example A) and during the trend moment (Example B) you promote that guide with added urgency: “Because today is [Awareness Day], join our mini‑fundraiser and use our guide to become a monthly fundraiser.” The evergreen content supports the campaign long after the trend dies down, while the trend moment drives the influx of new supporters.
This aligns with insights from content strategy experts who say the ideal mix between evergreen and trend‑based content is about 60% evergreen, 30% trend, and 10% experimental. Missinglettr+1
Why this approach elevates fundraising—not just donations
- Longevity over one‑time gifts: Evergreen content builds a foundation that keeps producing results, which helps convert one‑time donors into recurring fundraisers or monthly donors.
- Momentum and visibility: Trend‑based campaigns bring in bursts of new supporters, generate social buzz, and expand your reach into new networks.
- Compound impact: After the trend fades, your evergreen asset continues to work, nurturing the new supporters brought in via the trend moment into loyal fundraisers.
- Trust and authority: Evergreen content positions your organization as a credible resource. That credibility helps in fundraising campaigns where supporters are asked not just to give but to commit, recruit, or champion your cause.
- Agility and relevance: Trends help you stay relevant, show responsiveness, and engage with current conversations and social platforms. This builds awareness which then funnels into deeper fundraising action via your evergreen assets.
How to implement an evergreen + trend mix for fundraising
Here is a step‑by‑step roadmap to deploy this strategy in your next fundraising campaign:
- Define your fundraising goal: Are you looking for recurring donors? Peer fundraisers? Large gifts? Once the goal is clear you can map content accordingly.
- Develop your evergreen content: Create resources, guides, toolkits that answer ongoing questions and support your mission. For example, “How peer‑to‑peer fundraisers can double impact” or “Best practices for monthly supporter programs”.
- Identify relevant trends: Look for upcoming awareness days, social‑media challenges, viral conversations, or fresh data/reports that align with your cause.
- Plan the content mix: Allocate roughly 60% of your content to evergreen assets and reserve 30% for timely trend‑driven pieces (leave 10% for innovation or testing). Missinglettr+1
- Launch the trend‑based campaign: At the right moment publish your trend content, promote it heavily, invite new supporters, and link to your evergreen resources to cultivate deeper engagement.
- Link back to evergreen assets: In your trend campaign, always include a path to the evergreen content, so you capture long‑term value from the new traffic.
- Measure, revisit, refresh: Track key metrics like number of new fundraisers created, monthly donor conversions, peer fundraisers recruited. Periodically update evergreen content to maintain relevance (best practice) and assess which trend moments yielded sustainable fundraising momentum.
- Amplify and repurpose: Use the momentum from the trend moment to fuel evergreen assets (for example, update your guide with new data from the trend campaign or create a case study) and use evergreen content as the backbone for future campaigns.
How Giveable can help make this strategy work for you
At Giveable we specialise in helping fundraising organisations move beyond simply asking for donations and instead build a fundraising growth engine. Here’s how we assist with the evergreen + trend mix strategy:
- Strategy development: We work with your team to map your fundraising goals and content strategy, selecting the right mix of evergreen assets and trend‑based campaigns.
- Content creation: From evergreen guides and toolkits to trend‑moment campaigns and challenge launches, we help you craft compelling content tailored to your cause.
- Campaign execution: We support the planning and launch of your trend‑based fundraising activations, including landing pages, peer‑to‑peer setup, and integration with evergreen resources.
- Measurement & optimisation: We track campaign performance in fundraising terms (fundraisers recruited, recurring donor conversions, campaign lift) and refine your content strategy to maximise both immediate and lasting impact.
- Repurpose & scale assets: We help you unlock the long‑term value of your content by repurposing and updating evergreen materials, and leveraging trend moments to build momentum.
If you are ready to build a fundraising framework that combines timeless assets with timely action and yields growth not just one‑time gifts, Giveable is your partner.
Call to action:
Ready to start your evergreen + trend fundraising strategy? Contact Giveable today.