Network for Good

(Press release, Feb. 20, 2015) — Network for Good has announced the launch of The Recurring Giving Challenge, a special campaign and training series that empowers nonprofits to invest in recurring giving and inspire donors to give monthly. The challenge includes a free online course devoted to monthly giving, as well as a combination of free and client-exclusive campaign materials to arm nonprofits with expert guidance and the online fundraising software needed for a successful monthly giving program.

A new report exploring Giving Tuesday published by the Giving USA Foundation and researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy finds that an estimated total of $45.7 million was raised through five major donation-processing platforms, including $10.8 million offline donations, on #GivingTuesday.

That estimate is based on contributions tracked by five major donation-processing platforms for nonprofits: Blackbaud, DonorPerfect, GlobalGiving, Network for Good and Razoo.

Seeing what others are doing with their fundraising is one of the best ways to jump-start your own creativity and find new things to try or test. If you haven't done it recently, make some donations to nonprofits that you think you can learn from; reading about fundraising is good, but actually being a recipient of it is great!

Online giving in December rose nearly 13 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, according to a sample of more than 10,000 groups that use the online-donation processor Network for Good. The total for December — $44.1 million — was boosted by particularly strong giving at the very end of the month. Network for Good, an online-giving platform, said it processed $9.9 million in charitable donations on Dec. 31, more than double the amount given on Dec. 30, the next-most lucrative day that month.

Lots of money will be flowing to nonprofits next week at the very end of the year. When online donors visit your site, here's what they want out of their giving experience.

Giving Tuesday showed strong growth on two fronts in 2014. The amount of cash raised increased 64 percent over 2013, according to one estimate. In addition, volunteerism is becoming an important part of the annual charity event.

Nonprofits raised nearly $46 million in connection with this year’s event, according to early estimates by Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, produced in partnership with the Case Foundation. The event raised $28 million last year, according to Lilly.

Built on the seemingly infinite expanse of social media, the breadth and success of Giving Tuesday would seem to defy easy visualization. But the online charity platform CrowdRise plans to do just that, with a virtual Giving Tower reaching to the sky.

A free app for smartphones, scheduled for launch Nov. 25, will allow users to point their devices at a dollar bill and create a hologram image of a tower. As the donations accumulate, the bricks will show photos of donors and their chosen charity.

Google announced that it will match monetary donations that its users make to fight Ebola through a new fundraising campaign website the tech giant launched Monday. This is the first matching campaign the company has ever announced.

The campaign will benefit four organizations — Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee — by way of a donation to the Network for Good, an online fundraising platform.

When fundraising works, it's often because someone took the time to do the "usual" just a little bit better.

Summer is finally here, and all I can think about is November and December. Winter is, coincidentally, the hottest time of year for those of us in direct marketing.