#GivingTuesday Donations Skyrocket, Reach Record High in 2017

One of the most crucial days in a nonprofit organization’s fiscal year happens the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. An annual event, which is recognized as “#GivingTuesday,” was created in 2012 by the Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact at the 92^nd Street Y to celebrate and encourage charitable giving. And since then, this day usually kicks off many holiday and other year-end giving campaigns.

Since the inception of #GivingTuesday, donations have been steadily increasing year after year. And this year was no different. On Nov. 28, donations were higher than ever.

According to a press release from Blackbaud, a founding partner of #GivingTuesday and a cloud software company that processes the most #GivingTuesday donations, processed over $60.9 million in donations from over 7,200 nonprofits—a 28 percent increase from 2016. What’s more striking is that since its birth in 2012, #GivingTuesday has increased a whopping 500 percent, which is driven by the rise of technology.

Blackbaud reported that the volume of online donations grew 20 percent since 2016, online average gifts were over $134 and approximately 26 percent of donations were made through mobile device.

While the donations tallied up to $168 million—from 98 countries and an average gift of $108—in 2016, 2017 donations blew through the roof. The 2017 #GivingTuesday Data Project reported a colossal $274 million raised online—with 2.4 million total gifts from 150 countries and an average gift size of nearly $111.

Last year, Facebook and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation teamed up and matched $900,000 in donations. This year, the duo teamed up once more to match $2 million in donations.

For more information on #Giving Tuesday, please visit givingtuesday.org