#GivingTuesday Online Donations Up 53% from 2011

Blackbaud is proud to be a founding partner of #GivingTuesday, which kicked-off yesterday and attracted both major media and social media buzz, but even more importantly, brought great awareness to the nonprofit sector during the critical year-end giving season.

Similar to the way Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become days synonymous with holiday shopping, organizers are aiming to put #GivingTuesday on the calendar as a day dedicated to giving.

An unprecedented partnership of more than 2,500 charities, volunteer organizations, corporations, community centers and foundations made history yesterday with the inaugural #GivingTuesday, marked by activities and campaigns in all 50 U.S. states.

Results will continue to trickle in, but early indications from #GivingTuesday certainly show a positive sign for the nonprofit sector. For example, Blackbaud processed more than $10 million in online donations on the inaugural #GivingTuesday, a 53% increase over the same day last year. Blackbaud monitored online donation activity through its systems throughout the day.

Blackbaud also found that the average online gift on #GivingTuesday was $101.60, which is larger than one published industry benchmark of $62. Blackbaud did see an increase in the total number of organizations receiving online donations on #GivingTuesday compared to a normal day. We plan to do further analysis in this area to look for some meaningful trends.

It’s important to note that donations are just one part of the giving experience. People also used #GivingTuesday as an opportunity to give their time and talents to causes important to them.

Next year, #GivingTuesday will fall on December 3, 2013, so be sure to mark it on your shiny new calendars, and sign-up now to join the movement!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve MacLaughlin

Steve MacLaughlin is the Vice President of Data & Analytics at Blackbaud and bestselling author of Data Driven Nonprofits.

MacLaughlin has been featured as a fundraising and nonprofit expert in many mainstream publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, The NonProfit Times, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bloomberg, and has appeared on NPR.

He is a frequent speaker at events including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), American Marketing Association (AMA), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), Giving Institute Summer Symposium, National Association of Independent School (NAIS), Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), Institute of Fundraising National Convention (United Kingdom), Civil Society Conference (Netherlands), International Fundraising Congress (Netherlands), Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School (Ireland), and a keynote speaker at several conferences across the social good sector.

Steve previously served on the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) Board of Directors and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University.

He is a frequent blogger, published author of a chapter in the book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities, and is a co-editor of the book Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets. His latest book, Data Driven Nonprofits, became a bestseller in 2016.

Steve earned both his undergraduate degree and a Master of Science degree in Interactive Media from Indiana University.