#GivingTuesday2020: Preliminary Recap
Whew – what a week! Another Giving Tuesday down. We are all exhausted – but thrilled with the success we achieved for so many worthwhile and extraordinary causes.
We haven't done too much in-depth analysis (yet), but here are some of the top-line trends and takeaways that have popped for our clients.
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Most had terrific days, with fully half showing more than 100% growth year-over-year. Many of the organizations with the biggest surges had a strong boost in fundraising earlier this year between COVID-19 and other factors, and on Giving Tuesday were able to leverage the growth in their donor base.
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We noticed early in the day that high-dollar gifts were lagging for some clients. While $1K+ giving stayed proportionally the same year-over-year for some organizations, for others it dropped quite a bit (generally lower-dollar gifts surged and more than made up for the dip).
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Giving just before Giving Tuesday giving seemed to be variable this year. For a couple of organizations, the days between Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday had a similar level of promotion as last year, but donations lagged nonetheless.
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Social in-platform giving, while generally up year-over-year, didn't keep up proportionally with the growth rates we were seeing through other digital channels. We assume this was because of the political/social promotion limits on Facebook.
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Several nonprofits saw a skew toward later in the day than previous years. For one of our clients, we were sweating until mid-afternoon over a decline in revenue and a plummet in $1K+ gifts, but during the last 8 hours of the day, it picked up (and the organization closed day-of income 20% ahead of last year).
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SMS continues to emerge as a channel that cuts through the noise, especially on high-industry-volume days like this.
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One of our clients had a Giving Tuesday Match for the first time – we don't often have a head-to-head comparison, but this organization showed a year-over-year growth of 145%, a clear and simple case for matches.
How does this compare to what our friends and colleagues are seeing around the industry? We'd love to hear about the trends other nonprofits are pointing toward.
Now, we're looking forward to keeping up the momentum and to a strong holiday and year-end giving season!
