Giving Tuesday is finally here, with charities all around the world appealing to their supporters to celebrate and encourage giving. Last year’s event brought in about $46 million for nonprofits, up from $28 million in 2013. Now in its fourth year, expect to see growth on all fronts with more collaboration across regions and causes, more corporate partnerships, more participants, more matching donations, and lots of creativity.
Follow along here as The Chronicle shares updated results and spotlights campaigns.
Update 5:39 p.m. -
More Results: $3.7 Million at 5 p.m. Eastern Time
The online gift-processing platform Network for Good is sharing results from Giving Tuesday campaigns that operate through its site.
As of 5 p.m. Eastern time, a total of more than $3.7 million has been raised. The Sikh Coalition, a New York-based group formed after September 11 that advocates for Sikhs in America, has raised the most dollars. The wildlife rescue group Wildlife SOS, based in New Delhi, continues to claim the highest number of donations and most new recurring donations on the site.
To view a year’s worth of online donation trends through Network for Good, visit The Chronicle’s interactive online giving dashboard.
Update 5:01 p.m. -
Burning Through a Day’s Gift Match in 20 Minutes
Giving Tuesday had barely started when Hispanics in Philanthropy’s online giving portal, HIPGive, raised so much that a $20,000 pool of matching funds from Kaiser Permanente was already used up. The group raised the full amount in roughly 20 minutes, says Andrea Perez, HIPGive project and marketing coordinator.
To keep the momentum going, HIPGive, which supports Latino causes around the world, announced a second pool of $20,000 in matching funds to be released in staggered increments of $5,000 through the day, which began at 11 a.m. Pacific time. The new match came from Hispanics in Philanthropy itself, along with several other organizations.
By about noon Pacific time, the San Francisco-based nonprofit had raised more than $150,000 — without the matches.
What makes the success story even more remarkable is that it contains an element of beginner’s luck: While Hispanics in Philanthropy is 30 years old, its online giving site was only launched about a year and a half ago. (In its first year, HIPGive raised little over $300,000.) Last year, the fledgling site participated in Giving Tuesday in a limited way, says Ms. Perez; this was the first year it went all in.
She attributes this year’s breathtaking haul to HIPGive’s guidance to the dozens of charities that raise money on its site: in the principles of crowdfunding, but also in how to reach supporters via social media and the news media. To bolster an image of philanthropy among Hispanics, HIPGive ran a social-media drive called #LatinosGive. People were asked to post photos or videos on social media that conveyed stories of Hispanics giving back. They were asked to use that hashtag and tag 10 friends.
Ms. Perez says the social-media drive helped to stir up enthusiasm for the fundraising campaign: “The more people you can gather together in an effort, you see how the results just magnify.”
Update 3:37 p.m. -
Latest Data: Online Giving Up 48% From 2014
At 2 p.m. Eastern time, Blackbaud reported that online giving on Giving Tuesday was up 48 percent compared to the same time last year. That percentage is based on the more than $17.5 million in online donations the software provider processed so far today.
Giving Tuesday founder the 92nd Street Y, along with Microsoft and Blackbaud, will be sharing donation results periodically throughout the day. The data is based primarily on figures from Blackbaud as well as other donation processors who choose to report.
Update 1:49 p.m. -
PayPal Seeks a World Record Claim
Today, PayPal is attempting to break the Guinness World Record title for the most money donated online in 24 hours. The current record of $19 million is held by the Disasters Emergency Committee, in Britain, which raised relief money for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. PayPal has a goal of collecting $20 million for charities from donors who give via its platform on Giving Tuesday.
“We really want to shine a spotlight on the total amount of funds that are raised,” says Clam Lorenz, PayPal’s general manager for social innovation. “We look at the Guinness record attempt as another piece of the puzzle.”
Mr. Lorenz believes some people who might not otherwise have donated will get excited about the opportunity to help set a new record and will give.
In addition, PayPal will add 1 percent to every donation of at least $10 made through its PayPal Giving Fund in nine countries. The fund is a nonprofit that collects donations and distributes them to the causes its users select, similar to a donor-advised fund. The fund says it collects more than $86 million annually and distributes 100 percent of the gifts earmarked for charities.
Notable #GivingTuesday Social Media Posts For the Day
Update 12:41 p.m. -
Early Results: $1 Million and Counting
The online gift-processing platform Network for Good is sharing results from Giving Tuesday campaigns that operate through its site.
As of 11 a.m. Eastern time, a total of more than $1 million has been raised. So far, the Somerset Elementary School Educational Foundation has raised the most dollars and the wildlife rescue group Wildlife SOS has the highest number of donations. Feed Washington, an anti-hunger charity, signed up the most new recurring donations on the site.
To view a year’s worth of online donation trends through Network for Good, visit The Chronicle’s interactive online giving dashboard.
Update 12:28p.m. -
Search Trumps Social Media for Online Support
Forty percent of people who connect with charities online do so via search engines—compared with a mere 3 percent who find charities via social media—according to new data from Adobe Digital Index, a digital marketing organization.
The data also found that the number of clicks on “donate now” buttons began accelerating rapidly and steadily beginning on Giving Tuesday in 2014, growing by about 900 percent by December 31 compared to the beginning of that month.
However, the average donation declined slightly in size in December last year, compared to the previous month. Average online gift size was $114 in December 2014, down from $120 in November of last year.
Update 12:07 p.m. -
A Charity Raises Money While Polling Its Donors
UJA-Federation of New York is not only raising money on Giving Tuesday, but also using the opportunity to kick off a two-week survey of its supporters to gauge their philanthropic passions.
Through December 15, the federation is asking visitors to its Giving Tuesday website to vote on which giving priorities they care about most. Visitors can choose from three program areas: fighting poverty, strengthening Israeli society, or building a more inclusive Jewish community.
Two anonymous donors have pledged to give a total of $10 per vote, up to $20,000, to support the organization. (On Giving Tuesday 2014, the federation raised $24,500.)
In a statement, the federation said it opted to use Giving Tuesday for the survey because it “presented a unique opportunity to communicate and engage directly with our supporters and hear about the parts of our work they are most passionate about. This feedback proves enormously valuable in some of our charitable giving decisions and establishing priorities.”
Update 11:53 a.m. -
Big Matches for Gifts to International Charities
Three of the biggest nonprofits that work overseas are luring supporters with big matches for their gifts on Giving Tuesday:
- Heifer International, which provides farmers in developing countries with livestock to help them earn a more sustainable living, is seeking to raise $900,000 for farmers in Haiti. Until midnight on Giving Tuesday, it is offering donors to that program a dollar-for-dollar match, provided by a single anonymous donor.
- Mercy Corps, a relief organization seeking to raise $50,000 on Giving Tuesday, is also offering a one-to-one match for gifts up to its goal amount, provided by an anonymous donor. As of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, the charity had nearly raised the total, according Christine Nyirjesy Bragale, its director of media relations.
- World Vision has secured a matching pledge from the direct-mail retailer Thirty-One Gifts. For every gift made by phone or online on Giving Tuesday, the company will donate one of its products for women and girls in need, up to $1 million in value.
Update 11:27 a.m. -
Rutgers U. Seeks 1,500 Gifts
Rutgers University is encouraging alumni, students, staff, and friends to paint the town scarlet for Giving Tuesday. The university has a goal of raising $500,000 through 1,500 gifts today through its givingday.rutgers.edu page, where donors can make contributions to individual schools or programs.
Using the hashtag #RUGivingDay, the university is encouraging supporters to post photos on social media featuring the school’s colors. The university is also running several contests throughout the day. For example, in recognition of Rutgers’s founding year, the 1,766th donor will be rewarded with an additional $500 to his or her favorite Rutgers cause. People who share a photo of their babies in Rutgers gear will also have a chance to win $500 toward the school or program of their choice.
The university is also putting forward $20,000 for each of its four campuses to encourage giving. Schools and programs at the Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark campuses, as well as Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences, will vie for their share of the $20,000 award money, which will be distributed based on the number of gifts each campus receives.
Update 10:08 a.m. -
NPR Seeks to Dial in Younger Supporters
As part of NPR’s new program for younger public radio listeners — NPR Generation Listen — local public radio stations will host small groups of radio fans for listening parties and discussions.
With support from a Case Foundation grant, a new site launched on Tuesday will provide tools for hosting themed listening parties. Today, 30 stations around the country will host Giving Tuesday-themed listening parties featuring stories intended to inspire dialogue about why people give and the future of philanthropy. The site will offer new guides each month focused on different themes and topics.
Update 9:46 a.m. -
An AIDS Charity Makes a Big Bet
December 1 is not only Giving Tuesday, but also World AIDS Day – usually a somber event remembering lives lost and medical progress stalled. This year, however, Amfar, the Foundation for AIDS Research, has something to sing about.
Marking its 30th year of operation in 2015, the charity announced on Monday that it was establishing an Institute for HIV Cure Research at the University of California at San Francisco. Seeded with a $20-million grant over five years, the commitment is part of an overall $100-million pledge Amfar made earlier this year to invest in research aimed at developing a scientific basis for a cure for HIV by 2020. To pay for the pledge, the charity launched a fundraising campaign, Countdown to a Cure, in 2014.
The new institute, and the bold goal, represents a window of opportunity Amfar has seen opening up since the announcement in 2008 that a patient in Berlin had been cured of HIV by a bone marrow transplant. “Not so long ago, the idea of a cure would be met with disdain and great deal of skepticism. We would have been accused of giving false hope for a cure that was not scientifically possible,” said Kevin Robert Frost, Amfar’s chief executive, on a conference call with reporters on Monday.
To spur awareness for the cause, the charity has been running a social-media campaign, which wraps up on Giving Tuesday. Supporters are asked to sing and record brief versions of the hit song “That’s What Friends Are For,” upload them to their social-media channels, and mark them with the hashtag #SingForAIDS. The song was recorded by Elton John, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, and Stevie Wonder 30 years ago to raise money for Amfar.
Matching Gifts for Veterans Causes
A pair of matching-gift campaigns, slated to run through the holiday season, aim to benefit two charities that aid ill or injured military-service veterans and their families.
On Veteran’s Day, the Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation announced the 10 Makes 20 Challenge, which will run through the end of the year. The foundation, co-created by the founder of the technology company Go Daddy, will match gifts to the Semper Fi Fund and its program, America’s Fund, dollar-for-dollar, up to $10 million. As of 9 a.m. Eastern time of Giving Tuesday, more than $1 million had been raised.
Fisher House Foundation, which builds lodging for military families in which a member is receiving hospital treatment, will benefit from a social-media drive Walmart is launching on Giving Tuesday. The retailer is giving Fisher House $500,000. Then, in a campaign called “Sing to Salute Military Families,” Walmart is asking people to sign part of a classic holiday song and post videos of their performances on social media using the hashtag #Sing2Salute. For every post, Walmart will give $100, up to $1 million, to Fisher House. The campaign will run through December 31.
