#GivingTuesday Breaks Online Giving Records. GiveCentral Discusses
CHICAGO, December 4, 2017 (Newswire.com) - The importance of year-end fundraising is etched deep in the psyche of nonprofit organizations. This is a time, as data suggests, when 31 percent of all donations that come in a year arrive.
In this context, the #GivingTuesday campaign kind of kickstarts the year-end fundraising season. Started in 2012, it has been seeing exponential growth each year. This year, it seems to have broken all records with as much as $274 million raised in donations. This surpasses last year’s tally of $177 million by a huge margin. There has been a more than 50 percent increase in donations. We could safely assume that the charity season has got off to a great start. This seems like a boom year in giving despite a lot of natural calamities which kept people’s attention occupied for most of the year.
A lot of factors could be attributed to the fundraising success this year. GiveCentral puts down a few of the most important ones.
Mobile Donations
A lot of nonprofit organizations have made it easier for their donors by going the mobile route. Not only does it make it much more accessible for people but it also allows them to give on the go – whenever and however they want to. The volume of donations which have been received through the smartphones have gone up by a huge margin. This is just keeping with the trend. More and more people are expected to use their mobile devices or the tablets to donate online.
Matching Gifts
The idea of tying up with a big corporation or a foundation to match gifts has always existed. For every contribution by a donor, these organizations would match an equivalent amount or anything in the deal, to encourage small donors. This year, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave away $2 million as matching gifts for donations made on Facebook to various nonprofit organizations.
Usage of Social Media
As nonprofits have realised the importance of social media and have started using it for their campaigns, the results are there to be seen. This #GivingTuesday campaign was no different. There was a lot of use of social media by nonprofits to reach out to potential donors and market their campaigns. Nonprofits used different social media platforms to reach out to a different kind of audience. Each ensured them a different communication channel. Marketing online not only helps one in terms of numbers but also helps to build trust by showcasing all the previous good work done by a nonprofit organization. This also helps in building confidence in the existing donors of a nonprofit organization.
Apart from these, a lot of other ideas like asking the supporters and volunteers of an organization to spread the word, using celebrities to market the campaign have been pretty successful this #GivingTuesday. All the past giving records have been broken. And these are definitely not the final figures. The numbers could rise even more.
Source: GiveCentral
