GivingTuesday 2026 is December 1: a 30-second appeal video plan

GivingTuesday 2026 is on Tuesday 1 December, the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving. A nonprofit can produce a 30-second appeal from five real photos, a music bed and two caption cues for about $0.43 in render, music and caption fees on Sume (photo import, if you use it, is priced separately), then change only the amount line for each channel.

The date and the description of GivingTuesday as 'a global generosity movement' come from the organization's own site, givingtuesday.org, read 2026-10-03. The page did not list 2025 totals in the text I could read, so this post does not quote any.

What the video must do in 30 seconds

An appeal needs a person or a place the donor recognizes, one concrete result per dollar, and one action. A workable five-slot structure is: problem photo (6 s), your people at work (6 s), the result (6 s), the ask (6 s), logo and link (6 s). Use your own photographs. Sume's Timeline takes still images as static holds, which is enough for this structure.

Build and cost

Bring in the five photos as Sume-hosted media (an import job has its own price, not counted below). Generate a calm instrumental with the Music Router ($0.125, fixed) and write 'a 30-second track, instrumental, no vocals' in the prompt, since there is no duration field. Render with Timeline using audio.mode: "silence" and the track as soundtrack, 30 seconds, $0.10 per ceil minute. Burn two cues (the impact line and the ask) with one caption job ($0.20).

If you want a spoken ask, the Avatar Video route accepts a script that Sume estimates at 4 to 60 seconds and offers quality of standard, plus (default) or max. Check the live price in the catalog before you commit, because this post does not quote one.

One video, several asks

Because captions are a separate step, you can keep the clean 30-second MP4 and run one caption job per amount or channel. Email might say 'Give $25', a social ad might say your web address. Each is $0.20 and leaves the clean file untouched.

import os, sys, uuid, requests

def main():
    key = os.environ.get("SUME_API_KEY", "")
    if not key:
        sys.exit("Set SUME_API_KEY first")
    body = {
        "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/YOUR_ARTIFACT/clean.mp4",
        "style": "slam",
        "cues": [
            {"text": "$25 feeds a family for a week", "start": 12.0, "end": 18.0},
            {"text": "Give today: yourcharity.example", "start": 24.0, "end": 29.0},
        ],
    }
    resp = requests.post(
        "https://api.sume.com/v1/video-captions",
        json=body,
        timeout=60,
        headers={"Authorization": "Bearer " + key,
                 "Idempotency-Key": str(uuid.uuid4())},
    )
    print(resp.status_code, resp.json())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

What Sume does and does not do

• Does: assemble your photos into a captioned, scored vertical or square MP4.
• Does not: process donations, verify your impact numbers, or write claims about outcomes. Use figures you can prove.
• Does not: replace consent for people in photos. Get releases, especially for minors.