WASHINGTON — Giving Tuesday is approaching its 10-year anniversary. The day started in New York back in 2012 to encourage people to donate worldwide; especially after consumer holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Our question:
How has charitable giving changed in the decade since?
Our sources:
- Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer at Giving Tuesday
- Giving in Unprecedented Times – Giving Tuesday’s in-depth analysis of data and trends in 2020.
“Ten years ago, there was no concept that it was going to be this big," said Rosenbaum. “And it's really a testament to the fact that generosity is a universal value.”
According to Rosenbaum, Giving Tuesday has changed the way we donate to charity and has extended the giving season worldwide.
“Because that barrier to entry is so low and it's so fun and celebratory,” he explained, “People have found ways to give and ways to come together to give that end up lasting beyond the day.”
Rosenbaum said the organization has seen double-digit growth in giving every year but in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, donations hit an all-time high at $2.5 Billion in just 24 hours.
So, who are these donors? Here’s what the data tells us: The majority were first-time donors. Donations of up to $100 amounted to 57% of all donations in 2020. Contributions between $101 - $500 showed the most growth, accounting for 28.3% last year compared to 10.7% in 2019.
“What we saw prior to 2020 was a continued contraction in the giving economy so fewer and fewer people doing more of the giving each year and that that trend completely reversed last year, which is a huge opportunity and really important,” explained Rosenbaum. “Grassroots givers stepped up and we got a bigger, more diverse donor economy.”
The top organizations attracting these new donors were in the fields of:
- Human services
- Health
- Environment and Animals
- Education
So, what are we likely to see in giving this year?
Analysts are still collecting that data but so far, the trends look good.
“We're basically flat in terms of dollars against 2020 that’s actually pretty good news because 2020 was up and those newly acquired donors are still proving to be fairly sticky. So that's those are encouraging stats,” added Rosenbaum.