GivingTuesday’s $4B Surge: What It Signals for Your Year-End Strategy

With a big $4 billion GivingTuesday result this year — up 13 percent over last year — fundraisers hope donors will continue to be generous through the rest of the year. Some of the strategies that helped organizations do well this year may be retooled and rebooted to help rake in year-end gifts as well.   

“We really hope that the nonprofit sector keeps our foot to the floor here,” says Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer for GivingTuesday. “What appears to be happening is organizations that are intentionally tapping into that everyday giver are getting a great result. That’s really encouraging because it means that opportunity exists to connect with supporters.

The Economic Uncertainty Paradox

This year has been mired in economic uncertainty, changes to government funding, and a government shutdown. Many have worried this level of uncertainty could hamper giving.

“We didn’t see any signs” of that on GivingTuesday, Rosenbaum says. The fact that federal cuts and economic uncertainty have been so present could be spurring donors to be generous to causes they care about.

“The same things that can cause that [economic] anxiety are also motivators for people to have agency,” Rosenbaum says. “It has a positive impact on people’s motivation and responsiveness to giving opportunities.”

In St. Petersburg, Fla., two giving circles that wanted to collectively make a difference raised more than $50,000 for GivingTuesday. J.P. Papich started 100 Good Guys St. Pete, after seeing the work of 100 Women Who Care St. Petersburg, led by his friend Lauren Brigman. Coming together to give, he says, works because it’s doable even in economically taxing times.

“Nobody’s killing their bank accounts to get this done,” Papich says. “Doing it side by side with other people helps me get outside of my head, sleep better at night, and feel more connected to my community.”

Similarly, GoFundMe has found that leaning in to community efforts that engage grassroots and peer-fundraising efforts work well in this economic environment, said Margaret Richardson, chief marketing officer at GoFundMe.

“One of the things that we’ve also seen in the lead up to GivingTuesday on our platform are the challenges-based, community-powered campaigns that are really resonating with younger audiences,” she says. “These are the kinds of ways in which organizations are able to activate new and different segments of their supporter base to be able to deepen the engagement.”

The economy has been a pivotal part of the campaigns GoFundMe users have been creating this year, with the organization’s Year in Help report noting that campaigns to raise money for individuals to pay for monthly bills that cover basic living expenses were the second fastest growing kind of appeal on the platform. Richardson noted some of these campaigns for food bills peaked during the uncertainty of the government shutdown and lost food benefits.

That giving was outpaced only by giving to charities. For GivingTuesday specifically, GoFundMe saw $63.3 million raised for nonprofits on its platform, with the number of donors to nonprofits growing by 13 percent.

Big Donors Up the Ante

GivingTuesday was founded on the idea of bringing small-dollar donors together to make a difference. GivingTuesday saw the average gift size increase slightly to $212, up from $193 last year. While this is not a big shift, it’s something the organization will be keeping an eye on.

“We don’t want to see that average donation on Giving Tuesday going up and up and up,” Rosenbaum says. “We don’t think that’s necessarily a positive sign.”

Still, larger donors giving securities, in light of this year’s stock market increase, were noticed on GivingTuesday. Allison Fine, president of the fundraising platform Every.org, noted it received twice as many stock and crypto donations for GivingTuesday as last year.

Elaine Kenig, chief communications officer at Vanguard Charitable, a sponsor of donor-advised funds, says gifts to its DAFs have been up since September — likely spurred by a combination of the stock market and upcoming tax changes that will generally make giving less favorable for large donors next year. On GivingTuesday, donors using the organization’s DAFs increased their gifts to nonprofits by 26 percent from last year and supported 23 percent more charities, Kenig says.

Donors giving appreciated assets are often looking to increase their tax-advantaged giving, Kenig says, and reminds people to lean in to that in the final weeks of the year.

“Don’t shy away from why the tax changes might incentivize people to give now,” Kenig says. “Use that as a conversation starter for how they can maximize their gift before December 31.”

Recurring Gifts and Volunteerism

One trend from GivingTuesday that will generally boost organizational revenue is the increase in recurring donations. Richardson says GoFundMe saw a 20 percent increase in new recurring donations on GivingTuesday. The platform Bloomerang saw recurring donations increase by 60 percent, says Evan DaSilva, senior vice president of payments.

“It’s not this one-off transactional relationship,” DaSilva says. “It is a longer-term commitment to an organization. So we were super encouraged by that.” 

DaSilva said charities that had success with recurring giving were those that focused on building stronger connections with donors.

As a whole, GivingTuesday had a 20 percent increase in volunteering this year over last year, Rosenbaum says. Rotary International has leaned in to volunteerism more for GivingTuesday, encouraging its young professionals to “give your time or volunteer,” says Eric Schmelling, chief philanthropy officer. Rotarians were asked to track the volunteer projects they engaged in on GivingTuesday and report back by December 10. While all the results weren’t in yet, the initial responses show a lot of interest.

“My team triages the responses that come back,” says Stephanie Adomaitis, donor engagement manager. “We can get an initial tone by those responses. And they’ve all been so positive in telling us what they’re working on and that their club’s going to all donate together.”

Post-GivingTuesday Asks

As nonprofits head into the year-end stretch, they sometimes worry that constantly asking donors to give — especially if those donors gave on GivingTuesday — will make the efforts feel transactional and be less successful. Rosenbaum understands the worry but says the key is to make sure to offer supporters multiple ways to engage, including giving.

“We want to make sure that our engagement is a dialogue,” Rosenbaum says. “First of all, please say thank you. Secondly, make sure you talk about the impact that your donors are having together with you.”

Rosenbaum suggests offering volunteer opportunities, donation opportunities, and sharing opportunities — which involve a supporter sharing about your organization on social media.

For the first time, Rotary International asked members to share online why they support the foundation and got over 2,500 shares, says Adomaitis. Additionally, the organization has a policy of sending four or five thank you notes or impact messages between asks. This avoids messaging that feels too frequent or transactional. In advance of GivingTuesday, Rotary spent November on a thank you campaign to current donors, lapsed donors, and supporters who had never given.

“We actually had a built-in month where we just kept thanking our different segments of donors, priming them to be asked many times throughout the course of December,” Adomaitis says.

She advises groups out there to throw in some thanks and only then some asks: “Any way you can, say thank you before you start to make another ask on the heels of GivingTuesday.”