2020 and Beyond
Remember the dawn of this decade when pun-y headlines about 2020 vision abounded? We thought we had our pulse on what was coming down the pike — and to a degree, we did. But no one anticipated the way the pandemic would upend our lives, our organizations, and the way we give and raise money.
Now the data is rolling in. And while hindsight isn’t exactly 2020, we’re starting to piece together a fuller picture of how people gave last year.
Yesterday, GivingTuesday released a report based on aggregated 2020 data from 74 charitable-giving platforms. The study focuses on giving to established nonprofits that raise no more than $25 million annually, and it is one of the most complete snapshots we have of giving last year. The annual “Giving USA” report will provide another broad view of 2020 philanthropy when it’s released next month.
My colleague Michael Theis dug into the new GivingTuesday report, which estimated that overall giving in 2020 increased 5.2 percent from 2019, driven mostly by large donations from supporters who had previously given to the same organization in 2019 or earlier.
Further, the long-term downward trend in the number of overall donors was reversed in 2020. The 1.3 percent increase in the number of supporters was driven “almost completely” by an 11 percent increase in the number of gifts of $101 to $500.
According to Woodrow Rosenbaum, GivingTuesday’s chief data officer, it’s unclear if smaller-dollar donors will continue to give in such volume.
“This is the question about so many things we observe in 2020: Was that a one-off, or does it herald a change? To a degree, we don’t know,” said Rosenbaum. “It remains to be seen how much of that was driven by the emergency of the moment. But what we expect is continued volatility.”
Last year’s growth in overall giving was uneven, to be sure. Most nonprofits, by number, saw fundraising revenue drop 5 to 10 percent as the lion’s share of giving went to organizations with already-robust fundraising totals and whose work was directly related to the effects of the pandemic.
The authors of the report do aim to look ahead. They predict a return to pre-pandemic charitable giving patterns this year. As the pandemic recedes in severity and local economies begin to bounce back, the authors expect human-service groups, whose programs were in high demand in 2020, to see their fundraising levels go back to what they were before the crisis. They also anticipate charities less directly connected to the pandemic response and civil-rights issues will recapture donors who had given before but not in 2020.
The authors recommend maintaining contact with new 2020 donors and reminding them of the impact of their gifts. In addition, the authors urge charities to promote recurring donations to keep new donors in the fold. That will be an important tactic for fundraisers looking to hold onto contributors who gave $500 to $5,000 in 2020.
“Whether or not we continue to tap into the desire of the American public to be generous depends on whether or not we go and meet them,” said Rosenbaum. “Being present and giving people the opportunity they’re looking for to affect change is one of the ways that we can recover strong.”
Read Michael’s story. There’s a lot of good information to absorb.