What #GivingTuesday 2017 Means for Nonprofits in 2018

#GivingTuesday remains a strong day for nonprofits to reach their annual fundraising goals, this hasn’t changed since the day was first developed and launched by the 92^nd Street Y and Network for Good. However, the landscape is changing and the way we unleash people’s generosity is as well. Year after year, we’ve continued to see mobile become a key pathway for charitable donations, but more than ever this year Facebook and other social networks became a hotbed of charitable giving activity. We feel that the advancements in technology have given individuals and companies a real-time platform for building a community around a cause and creating a one-stop-shop for contributions.

This year Network for Good saw statistic records and has been able to set a new benchmark to track activities from.

Network for Good’s data is from the tens of thousands of nonprofits that leverage the company platform, this year over 17,000 participated and more than 58,000 individuals donated. The company believes the trend of giving across various technology platforms throughout the year and when community action is called for will continue. The numbers from this year—$8.8M in donation volume—include a historic comparison that highlights key factors that are leading to these changes, including shifts attributed to technology, social media, mobile, and more.

• 14 percent increase in contributions made via mobile devices.
• Facebook collected more than $45 million through its platform, of which Network for Good handled more than half or the disbursements through its relationship with Facebook.

#GivingTuesday is historically an important moment-in-time for nonprofits. We think there’s a real opportunity for nonprofits to tap into key learnings and create customized giving moments to encourage sustainable giving all year long. This year has been interesting as we saw real-time movements, from natural disasters to political events, yet the top organization types that raised the most during #GivingTuesday were health and education related.

The data presented below by Network for Good, highlights several key categories that include:

• Giving trends through the Network for Good platform.
• Geographic giving stats.
• Projected growth of giving via a mobile device.
• Correlations between #GivingTuesday participation and total year-end giving.
• Categories that see the most activities such as health/wellness, pet, emotional/political, etc.

#Giving Tuesday—following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday—created in 2012 by the 92^nd Street Y and grown from the support of Network for Good, allows nonprofits to garner attention, grow their audience, and act during a key moment-in-time. #GivingTuesday helps nonprofits make projections for year-end donations. While we don’t anticipate #GivingTuesday going away, we do anticipate we will see a shift as we head into 2018, which will see smaller to medium-sized nonprofits developing and executing on their own community-driven key moments-in-time.

2018 will also present new opportunities and challenges as it relates to the tax reform. Network for Good’s simple, smart fundraising software gives nonprofits hours back in their days on data entry, so they can focus on truly building their communities, but we also provide insight, education, and thought-leadership perspectives around outside events or news that may impact the nonprofit and charitable giving sector. We will share our thoughts on the tax reform and what nonprofits can do to harness and navigate new legislature moving into the New Year. In the meantime, take note of the trends we’ve seen, as they aren’t going away and will only continue to change the path for which nonprofits should be engaging, activating, and growing their community and ambassadors.