In just its third year, Tuesday's national day of charitable giving-known as #GivingTuesday-attracted widespread participation, with $34.9 million raised online via five major donation processing platforms, according to initial estimates tallied by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and supported by the Case Foundation. Very early reporting of the amount for offline donations processed by some of these platforms as of noon on December 3 included an additional $10.8 million raised offline, for a combined $45.7 million.
Giving results for #GivingTuesday 2014 are expected to grow substantially as offline donations continue to be processed. Online giving represents an estimated 6-10 percent of total annual giving.
More than 296,000 online and offline contributions to charities were made during the 24-hour period that began at 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 2 and continued until 11:59 p.m. The estimates are based on contributions tracked by several major donation processing platforms for nonprofits: Blackbaud, DonorPerfect, GlobalGiving, Network for Good and Razoo.
"Just as Cyber Monday and Black Friday are key indicators of consumer sentiment and economic health, this data on #GivingTuesday can serve as an indicator of the health of our giving economy," said Jean Case, co-founder and CEO of the Case Foundation. "We're excited about what we saw yesterday, as millions of people came together to support more than 15,000 nonprofits across the globe, demonstrating the true spirit of the holidays and proving that, collectively, small gifts can have big results."
"It's encouraging that early results already indicate that Americans donated $45 million on #GivingTuesday this year, highlighting their commitment to making a difference in the lives of others," said Una Osili, director of research for the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. "As tremendous as that amount is, though, #GivingTuesday is not just about the money that is raised, it is also about people and nonprofits engaging with each other to improve the world. In just three short years, the number of people making contributions and the number and types of nonprofits of all sizes receiving those gifts has increased dramatically."
The 2014 initial results indicate that the amount raised during this year's #GivingTuesday increased by at least 63 percent over the same period for #GivingTuesday in 2013. The total number of donations is estimated to have increased by at least 53 percent, and the total average donation is estimated to have increased by 6 percent. On #GivingTuesday 2013, a total estimated amount of $28.09 million in primarily online contributions was raised, following an estimated total of $13.46 million in primarily online contributions on #GivingTuesday 2012 collected through several of these platforms.
#GivingTuesday is largely driven by social media and online giving campaigns, demonstrating the popularity of online giving in recent years. Over the course of the day, more than 698,000 tweets mentioning the #GivingTuesday hashtag were shared. This was an increase of 159 percent from 2013.
The Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and Giving USA Foundation will present broader findings on how #GivingTuesday has been affecting year-end online giving in a special Giving USA Spotlight report, to be released at a later date.
#GivingTuesday is a global movement that engages individuals, businesses, communities and nonprofits to celebrate and encourage giving. Launched in 2012 by New York's 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation with additional partners, #GivingTuesday annually promotes giving back at the beginning of the holiday season on the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving. Learn more about the movement online at givingtuesday.org.
About the Data
#GivingTuesday 2013 and 2014 data were collected in partnership with Blackbaud, DonorPerfect, GlobalGiving, Network for Good and Razoo. These donation processing platforms handle charitable contributions on behalf of nonprofit organizations. 2012 #GivingTuesday data were collected from both donation processing organizations and publicly available reports. These results include only those amounts reported by participating donation processing platforms as of noon on December 3, 2014.
The majority of #GivingTuesday collected data are online donations made to U.S.-based nonprofits. These data represent a segment of all donations collected on #GivingTuesday 2014, as the majority of offline donations have yet to be processed. These data are estimates and may be revised at a future date.
About the Case Foundation
Established by Jean and Steve Case in 1997, the Case Foundation invests in people and ideas that can change the world. In our efforts to address social challenges, we unite the principles of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology to identify, test, prove and scale ideas and models designed to create exponential impact. For more information, visit casefoundation.org, follow us at twitter.com/casefoundation and facebook.com/casefoundation.
About the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy is dedicated to improving philanthropy to improve the world by training and empowering students and professionals to be innovators and leaders who create positive and lasting change. The School offers a comprehensive approach to philanthropy-voluntary action for the public good-through its academic, research and international programs and through The Fund Raising School, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving and the Women's Philanthropy Institute. Follow us on Twitter or "Like" us on Facebook.