#GivingTuesday Donations Have Risen Steadily, Study Finds

Title: “#GivingTuesday Trends”

Organization: Blackbaud

Summary: The biggest organizations that participate in Giving Tuesday bring in by far the largest share of gifts during the event, according to a new study that analyzed donations from 2012 to 2014. But midsize groups have seen their share rise steadily from one year to the next.

Organizations that raise more than $10 million annually from all sources brought in 74 percent of gifts raised during the 2014 event. However, charities that raise $1 million to $10 million a year saw their share go from 15 percent in 2012 to 21 percent in 2014.

The report, by Blackbaud, the fundraising-software company, analyzed data collected from more than 4,300 charities that together raised $55.6 million from the first Giving Tuesday through 2014’s event.

Monthly Giving

The annual day devoted to philanthropy was launched in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation. This year’s Giving Tuesday will be on November 29.

Among the study’s other findings:

• Religious charities, followed by higher-education and medical-research groups, scooped up just over half of all donations on Giving Tuesday in 2014. But in 2012, the first year of the event, medical research, followed by human services and international affairs groups, benefited the most, commanding nearly 70 percent of all Giving Tuesday contributions.
• Charities of all sizes saw their average gift size jump in 2014 compared with 2012. Supporters of large organizations gave an average of $168 per gift in 2014, up from $107 in 2012; donors to midsize groups gave an average of $149, up from $100. For nonprofits that raise less than $1 million annually, average Giving Tuesday contributions in 2014 were $134, up from $100 two years earlier.
• Among all causes, supporters of faith-based organizations gave the largest average gifts in 2014, at $280. Donors who supported environmental and animal-welfare causes gave an average of $64, the smallest amount for any cause that year. However, the report’s author, Steve MacLaughlin, suggested in the report that many of those organizations are focusing on steering Giving Tuesday contributors to sign up for monthly giving.

He writes, “Smart organizations could certainly learn a lesson from the environment and animal-welfare sector and focus their #GivingTuesday campaigns on acquiring or converting monthly donors.”