Last month’s #GivingTuesdayNow, a global fundraising event targeted at nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic, drew a lot of attention, a lot of donations, and a lot of response from corners of the internet large and small.

But until a few days ago, we didn’t know exactly how big that impact was.

Last week, the GivingTuesday nonprofit announced preliminary results from the event—more than $503 million raised in the U.S. alone that day, which the organizers say is roughly as much as the normal Giving Tuesday event raised in December 2019.

In a news release, Woodrow Rosenbaum, GivingTuesday’s chief data officer, noted that the researchers plan to continue researching broader giving trends around the COVID-19 crisis, to get an idea of the nonprofit sector’s overall resilience.

“Our strategy for #GivingTuesdayNow is to measure trends in giving during a global crisis response,” Rosenbaum said. “In addition to this preliminary total, we’re working to evaluate generosity over a longer period of time, not just a single day, and to provide critical context for a unique moment in time.”

The results of that research will be made available in a report later this month.

Battle Zoom, and Win

https://twitter.com/EssentientAMC/status/1267480076628754439

Finding taking part in Zoom calls to be utterly exhausting? Perhaps the big problem is that you’re looking at yourself when you’re on the call.

That’s just one suggestion Alex Sixt offers in a post on Entrepreneur about beating Zoom fatigue.

“Regardless of how you feel about your quarantine look, self-view induces a feeling of anxiety associated with Zoom fatigue; worried about how we look, sound, or what’s going on with the lighting,” he explains. “To prevent any Zoom fatigue from self-view, simply turn off the camera feature whenever you’re able to.”

Other suggestions include taking a break, looking into other communication options, creating a meeting itinerary, and finding a new spot to take your call.

Other Links of Note

Careful with the latest version of Windows. As The Verge reports, Microsoft is blocking the update on many devices due to a series of known issues.

Looking to drive growth? Be willing to take on more strategic risk, LogicGate CEO Matt Kunkel writes on CMSWire.

Trying to make a case for people to sign up for your online course? Gather Voices highlights how digital video can help with that, without a ton of extra work.

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