GivingTuesday is all grown up and has spun off as an independent nonprofit.
In 2012, a small team at New York City’s 92nd Street Y created GivingTuesday, a day devoted to celebrating philanthropy following the consumer excesses of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Staff at the community and cultural center created a website with resources to help individuals and nonprofits call attention to their causes both online and off during a 24-hour period to encourage people to do good.
“I wish the organizers well as they launch the first GivingTuesday tomorrow,” Bill Gates wrote on his Gates Notes blog ahead of the first event. “I hope lots of people will use the reminder to do something meaningful and it becomes part of the rhythm of this holiday season.”
Heading into its eighth year, more and more people are feeling the rhythm. The idea has continued to grow as cities and countries around the world adapt GivingTuesday to their own cultural contexts and community leaders build a movement to celebrate generosity in all its forms.
The effort was housed in the organization’s Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact, which serves as an incubator for ideas until they grow to a point where they can stand on their own, says GivingTuesday co-founder Asha Curran, who until recently directed the center and served as chief innovation officer at 92Y, as it’s sometimes called. As GivingTuesday grew each year, it moved closer to that goal.
“It just got big enough that it was like a planet living within another planet,” Curran says. “It has a really strong and clear mission of its own.”
Several years ago, the 92Y team started a planning process to think about what the future of GivingTuesday might look like. This June, following the guidance of donors and outside consultants, GivingTuesday split off from 92Y to become an independent organization, with Curran serving as CEO.
‘Backbone Organization’
For donors and the people who organize the campaigns, the distinction between GivingTuesday the movement and GivingTuesday the organization is irrelevant.
Since its inception, the concept has always been nonhierarchical. “We think of ourselves as the backbone organization to the global movement,” Curran says. That means providing support to a network that now counts more than 60 countries and 200 communities in the United States. Throughout the year, community organizers and foundation leaders communicate with one another through WhatsApp chats and Slack channels in different languages. They might offer tips about how to implement GivingTuesday campaigns in their region or share inspiring entries from the #MyGivingStory social-media storytelling contest.
For those with an eye on building capacity among nonprofits, the organic growth of these networks is a reason to be optimistic.
The Lodestar Foundation provided GivingTuesday’s first $150,000 seed grant in 2012.
“It was probably the most impactful grant in our philanthropy strategy that we’ve made,” says Lodestar President Lois Savage. “It’s a simple idea, and it’s had such a global following and impact.”
GivingTuesday has since attracted other support.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made $8.84 million in grants to GivingTuesday since 2014, including $3.65 million to the new spinoff for 2019 through 2022.
Agus Galmarini, the program officer at the Gates Foundation who oversees the GivingTuesday grant, says she and her colleagues are closely watching the decrease in the share of Americans who give.
“We’re really concerned about the drops that we’re seeing, the share of households that are giving,” Galmarini says. “That for us makes it even more important to support organizations like GivingTuesday that are really helping create that moment in time for people to think, reflect, and act on their generosity.”
She thinks the movement’s organizers have succeeded thanks largely to their “new power” way of thinking. “Their ability to follow that grassroots kind of energy and really find the best ways to support and spotlight that is why GivingTuesday has been as successful as it’s been.”
Other supporters include the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Fidelity Charitable. The Lodestar Foundation recently gave its second grant to the new organization, which has a staff of 10 and a board that includes investment manager Jonathan Soros (who is one of billionaire George Soros’ five children) and Rob Reich, faculty co-director of the Stanford University’s Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society.
Generosity, Broadly Defined
Last year, GivingTuesday raised an estimated $380 million, a conservative count that tallies only the online gifts processed that day.
But financial contributions are just one measure of growth. “If we could shift public perception away from the idea that GivingTuesday is just a day for fundraising, that would be a great success,” Curran says. “The equation of the word generosity with financial giving really diminishes the meaning of the word generosity.”
She sees the bigger impact in the goals of building community, strengthening civic bonds, and bridging divides in a polarized time. “That to us is the magic of GivingTuesday,” she says.
Many campaigns set to kick off early on December 3 are not about giving money at all.
GivingTuesdayKids, for example, is the brainchild of an Oakland, Calif., 12-year-old named Khloe Thompson, who wants to inspire young people around the world to perform a million acts of after-school service projects. That might mean hosting a book drive or preparing meals for homeless people.
Giving Tuesday Military, the idea of three Army, Coast Guard, and National Guard spouses, aims to inspire a million acts of nonmonetary giving on U.S. military bases around the globe.
Data Focus
GivingTuesday also promotes the idea of “data philanthropy” through the GivingTuesday Data Collaborative. Over the past two years, Curran and her team have worked with 60 partners, including academics, payment processors like PayPal and Blackbaud, and platforms like Facebook, to better understand trends in online giving and how social media is shaping generosity.
“We’re really behind when it comes to the idea that if we pool our data and analyze it and return those findings to everyone, that everyone will benefit,” Curran says.
And it’s not just about giving data for one day of the year.
Donors acquired on GivingTuesday may be more loyal. They are 10 to 15 percent more likely to give again within a year, according to online fundraising company Classy. One in five people who contributed during last year’s drive gave again within six months of the event, according to a study from Facebook and the Gates Foundation.
These insights and many others are all thanks to this collaborative. “That they’re giving us that data to analyze is itself an act of data philanthropy,” Curran says, “which is something that the sector needs more of.”
Eden Stiffman reports on nonprofit trends and fundraising for the Chronicle. She recently wrote about the 100 charities that raise the most cash. She also writes a popular weekly fundraising newsletter . Email Eden or follow her on Twitter.
Correction: This article has been updated with revised figures for giving from the Gates Foundation.
