By Paul Clolery, Richard H. Levey and Eric Obernauer
Put it in the books. #GivingTuesday 2023 is complete and while it will take days to weeks for organizations to finish the calculations from many silos of revenue, numerous trends have emerged.
Overall numbers worldwide are not immediately expected from the #GivingTuesday organization, but anecdotal results from the United States are being reported that mirror the past year of fundraising. It appears from early results that fewer donors are giving more, and donor-advised fund grantors are stepping up.
“Grant requests by NPT donor-advised fund holders were up 37% on Giving Tuesday last year compared to the year before, and so far, are up 30% in value on Giving Tuesday this year, said Eileen Heisman, CEO, National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.
“That 30% data point is likely to go even higher by the time the West Coast finishes for the day. I don’t have enough data points yet to know if we’ll exceed the 37% increase that we saw last year, but my guess is we we’ll at least match it or be really close. So, I think that’s very promising,” Heisman told The NonProfit Times.
Giving is all about attitude and available assets. Both seems to be working for donor-advised fund grants. “Last year all the talk was about a recession being imminent. We’re not hearing that this year,” said Heisman. “We recently heard from the Fed (the Federal Reserve) that interest rates probably aren’t going up further, which the market liked a lot. So, I think we’re at a little bit more of an optimistic time than we were last year at this time.”
Schwab Charitable sends an average of more than 2,500 grants to charities each day throughout the year. “This #GivingTuesday, we expect to send more than five times the average number of daily grants on behalf of our generous donors who are committed to supporting their favorite causes,” said Schwab Charitable President Sam Kang. “Despite overall giving declining in 2022 according to Giving USA, Schwab Charitable donors increased granting last year with funds that had already been set aside for charity, and we continue to see increased donor activity this year.”
There might be additional clues as to how #GivingTuesday will turn out based on recent consumer behavior. Spending was up for Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers took advantage of what was usually an “off” day for workers by hosting sales with deep discounts) and Cyber Monday (historically when consumers would return to their offices, which often had better internet connections, thereby enabling online shopping). If that is an indicator of more disposable income than in the past, increased donations might follow.
The spending numbers are strong. Black Friday 2023 online sales hit a record $9.8 billion, up 7.5% from $9.12 billion in 2022. Cyber Monday sales, which stood at $11.3 billion in 2022, might jump by a similar percentage, as they are expected to top $12 billion in 2023.
“This year, nonprofits seeking to leverage GivingTuesday encounter significant competition, not only within their sector but also from the commercial space,” said Adva Priso, chief digital strategy officer at direct response firm Moore. “This involves digital promotion that commenced weeks ago for Cyber Monday, now extending to a full Cyber Week blitz, and the introduction of Travel Tuesday, sharing the same day.”
She said that “definitive trends and predictions are premature, considering the current time on both the east and west coasts.”
A solid indicator of where the final numbers might land is the action at donation processors. A spokesperson for Classy/GoFundMe said, “It seems strong. Many organizations are seeing flat year-over-year, seeing some growth.” Nothing was wildly anomalous, good or bad.
At Softerware, nonprofits on the DonorPerfect platform saw a 2% increase in online donations on #GivingTuesday this year compared to 2022. “Our projections for offline gifts that get entered into the system after the day will show approximate parity with last year as well,” said Lauren Sheehan, president of DonorPerfect.
Isabelle Brauer, senior strategy manager at fundraising agency Whole Whale in Brooklyn, New York, saw many of the same issues. “We are loosely seeing a lot more support from existing donors over last year, and less from new donors.” People’s budgets are tight right now, she said, and they are more likely to support a cause they have supported in the past because of existing relationships and trust and credibility.
According to Carrie Cobb, chief data officer at Blackbaud, “At the current rate, we are on track to surpass last year’s number of #GivingTuesday emails sent by nonprofit organizations. …Today’s volume being the highest Blackbaud has processed all year.”
Blackbaud’s End-of-Year Fundraising Toolkit was downloaded twice as many times this year compared to last year, suggesting that social impact organizations have been focused on and planning for GivingTuesday and the full end-of-year giving season, she said.
Several of the nonprofit executives interviewed said that #GivingTuesday has become more of a protracted event. Said Soraya Alexander, president of Classy and chief operating officer of crowdsourcing platform GoFundMe, “I expect we will continue to see GivingTuesday extending to the days (and weeks) before and after the actual date. Organizations are engaging donors throughout the holiday season, and I expect to see giving spikes continuing to flatten out.”
According to Cobb, “One anecdotal trend we’ve heard from our customers is that they’re using GivingTuesday as a way to complement their other annual giving days earlier in the year, with many doing a light donation ask on GivingTuesday and engaging supporters with volunteering or celebration opportunities.”
The day was designed to be international in nature but locally focused and that seems to be working again. For example, United Way of Greater Knoxville (UWGK) launched “The Big Give” — a 24-hour online giving campaign supporting for local nonprofits. “Last year, this event helped to raise nearly $300,000 for nearly 90 local nonprofits in the Knoxville area,” according to a spokesperson for United Way’s national headquarters.
“This year, they are looking to exceed that and benefit over 200 nonprofits within the community,” according to the spokesperson. The total was $150,000 mid-afternoon.
By late afternoon, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) was two-thirds of the way to its $60,000 goal. The rule of thumb for #GivingTuesday is that the revenue generated by 5 p.m. will double by the end of the 24 hours.
Organizations must raise more money just to stay even. “We’re seeing significantly higher costs across most of the search platforms. The cost to get the same results is exponentially higher this year than it was last year,” said Patrick Frame, founder of the agency Further Digital in Annapolis, Maryland.
International issues are generating activity, especially the Israel/Gaza situation. “Gaza is sucking some of the air out of the room, but for good reason,” said Frame. “Organizations that are fundraising on Gaza are definitely outpacing their peers.”
Matching donor programs are important, particularly for smaller organizations to keep pace with larger nonprofits. “We have several clients that are not offering a matching gift, and they’re doing well on the day. If you’re a smaller organization, a match is almost a must. But if you have a really strong brand, you’re still seeing good year-over-year results if you didn’t happen to have that match,” said Frame.
According to Brauer, “we are seeing more four and eight times matches — increased match numbers in 2023. Nonprofits are struggling to raise money, so I think they are attempting to motivate and incentivize donors to give. Existing donors want to see their dollars have as much impact as possible. Matches with foundations and corporate partners incentivize donors who would otherwise be reluctant.”
The predictions for outcomes in generally positive. “Our prognostication is that clients probably will show up this year similarly to how they showed up last year,” said Frame. “So, it’s not going to be a gangbuster #GivingTuesday, but it won’t be a bad showing either.”
