Which content formats (short video, livestreams, carousels, email, paid ads) drive the highest donation lift across platforms this year?

1. Why the question matters — fundraising lift vs. broader giving trends

Fundraisers want “donation lift” from specific formats because that metric drives channel allocation and creative investment, yet the documents provided focus on overall giving trends and tax‑policy shifts rather than experimental results that compare short video, livestreams, carousels, email, and paid ads. Giving USA quantifies total giving growth — $592.50 billion in 2024 — which matters for scale but not for format effectiveness ^[1].

2. What the reporting does provide: macro drivers that shape channel performance

Several pieces discuss how tax law changes and economic conditions ought to influence donor behavior. The One Big Beautiful Bill and other 2025/2026 tax shifts create incentives (or disincentives) for timing and instrument of gifts — for example, changes to deductibility and a new non‑itemizer deduction — that can alter who gives and when, and therefore affect campaign lift by audience segment regardless of format ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}. Giving USA points to stock market gains and GDP growth as contributors to the overall rise in giving, which can increase the pool of donors reachable by any channel ^[1].

3. Tax policy changes that reshape “who” and “when” — implications for format testing

Multiple sources outline concrete tax changes: a new non‑itemizer deduction and tighter itemizer floors and caps beginning in 2026, plus advice to “bunch” gifts or accelerate donations into 2025 for some donors ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [8]}. These shifts mean fundraisers should segment audiences by tax sensitivity and wealth: formats that perform well for older, high‑capacity donors (e.g., personalized email, donor‑advised fund messaging) may differ from formats that move smaller, emotion‑driven gifts (e.g., short video, social carousels). The reporting, however, does not provide empirical A/B results that confirm which format wins for which segment (not found in current reporting).

4. What fundraisers are advised to do — strategy over assumptions

Practitioners cited in the material recommend strategic timing (accelerating or bunching gifts) and varied vehicles like donor‑advised funds and in‑kind transfers, plus using modern tools such as AI to personalize outreach ^{[4] [7] [9]}. That implies best practice: test formats against segmented audiences and tax‑sensitive cohorts rather than assuming a single winning format. None of the sources claim livestreams or short video universally outperform email or paid ads for donation lift this year (not found in current reporting).

5. Where you can get the format‑level answers fundraisers need

Because the provided corpus lacks format‑level lift studies, the only way to answer the original question authoritatively is to run or consult platform A/B tests and industry benchmarks (e.g., email open/CTR → ask conversion, short‑form video view‑to‑donation funnels, livestream donor conversion metrics, paid ads ROAS). The Association of Fundraising Professionals and sector research bodies are urging data‑driven adoption of new tools and segmentation techniques — they recommend testing and personalization as core practices ^[7].

6. Practical next steps for organizations that want to know now

Design rapid experiments now: (a) segment donors by likely tax sensitivity (high‑net vs. small donors, itemizers vs. non‑itemizers) using the legal/tax guidance referenced ^{[2] [4] [6]}; (b) run parallel short experiments across formats with identical asks and tracking UTM/attribution; (c) measure incremental donation lift and donor lifetime value rather than one‑off conversion; and (d) incorporate macro timing advice (accelerate or bunch gifts where tax incentives apply) into creative messaging ^{[3] [8]}. The sources encourage precisely this kind of strategic, data‑driven approach but do not supply the empirical format comparisons themselves ^{[7] [4]}.

7. Bottom line — what we can and cannot say from these sources

We can say the fundraising environment in 2025–2026 is being reshaped by significant tax reforms and favorable macroeconomic contributors to total giving ($592.50B in 2024), which will affect channel performance across donor segments ^{[1] [2] [6]}. We cannot say which single content format drove the highest donation lift this year because the provided reporting contains no format‑level experimental results or platform comparisons (not found in current reporting).