Another Day of Growth: #GivingTuesday Keeps Up Yearly Streak

#GivingTuesday is a lot bigger than it used to be, and one big sign of that is the fact that some of the major donation processors this year are known for a lot more than #GivingTuesday.

According to the #GivingTuesday Data Project  (opens in a new tab), 2.4 million people raised $274 million for all sorts of charities and nonprofits this year, according to figures coming from numerous organizations, including traditional nonprofit payment processors like Network for Good and Blackbaud, as well as more mainstream ones like PayPal. Also unexpectedly on the list, and in a big way? Facebook, which processed $45 million this year. The NonProfit Times reports  (opens in a new tab) the social media giant was the third-largest payment processor on #GivingTuesday, after PayPal ($64 million) and BlackBaud ($60.9 million).

Both PayPal (which offered a 1 percent match on all donations) and Blackbaud (which has been active with the charitable holiday since its 2012 launch) saw growth above 25 percent year over year; 2017 was the first year Facebook was even tracked.

(However, Facebook did come out strong by offering a $2 million match on donations  (opens in a new tab) through the Gates Foundation, a buzzy move that helped the social network drive a significant level of donations.)

In a news release, Blackbaud noted  (opens in a new tab) that it’s seen a 500 percent increase in donation amounts since the event’s launch—along with double-digit increases every year since the event’s creation by the 92nd Street Y (92Y) in New York City.

“As a #GivingTuesday founding partner, we are proud that the movement continues to grow and this year was even more powerful as the day continued to garner donations for these groups to further their work and help them accomplish even more than they thought possible,” noted Rachel Hutchisson, Blackbaud’s vice president of corporate citizenship and philanthropy.

In comments to The NonProfit Times, 92Y Executive Director Henry Timms, the cofounder of the event, noted that nonprofits were getting more ambitious with their donation strategies.

“The thing I get excited about is our research showed that 75 percent of nonprofits tried something new with #GivingTuesday,” he told the news outlet. “That’s very cool, that it’s encouraging that kind of experimentation, when clearly we know as a sector that’s the world we need to be living. We are going to have to be agile and if #GivingTuesday can play a role in encouraging that, I think that’s terrific.”

Check out an infographic with #GivingTuesday highlights below:

(Kilav/iStock/Getty Images Plus)