What We Saw On Giving Tuesday 2020: Statistics & Best Campaigns

At Kindful, we were so encouraged by what we saw yesterday. This Giving Tuesday was the biggest one yet for our customers, which was a welcome result after a year of uncertainty. We hope this Giving Tuesday was one of the best giving days of the year for your organization!

In this blog post, we’ll highlight some interesting data from the day, share campaigns that caught our attention, and recommend what we think you should do now that Giving Tuesday is in the books.

2020 Giving Tuesday statistics

Kindful customers raised more than $11.4 million, which is a 142% increase over the amount raised on Giving Tuesday 2019. Peak donation times were 8AM, 10AM, and 7PM CST.

One of the more impressive trends we saw this Giving Tuesday was organizations encouraging donors to make a recurring donation versus asking them to make a one-time gift. Organizations using Kindful received more than $61,000 in monthly recurring donations, which will turn into roughly $732,000 over the next 12 months.

Learn more about building a successful monthly giving program to boost recurring donations.

Giving Tuesday giving trends and comparisons

To help you really understand your donors and modern giving trends, let’s take a closer look at how 2020 compared to last year.

Note on comparison charts: We pulled this data from Kindful hosted donation pages, which represent a fraction of the total donations our customers processed manually, through integration partners, or in person.

Giving Tuesday year-over-year growth for online giving

When you get down to the numbers, you can see how generous donors have been in 2020. Looking at donation pages hosted on Kindful, we saw an 113% increase in giving, 109% in number of gifts, and 2.4% in average gift size.

This shows an incredible change in behavior from offline transactions to online. We’ve seen this plenty throughout 2020’s pandemic: Donors are moving their gifts online more and more each year.

If Giving Tuesday gives us any indication, investing more in your online donation process is going to benefit your organization moving forward.

Year-over-year giving comparison by hour

It makes sense that giving habits have drastically changed this year. people are working from home, and many organizational missions are even more urgent in a global time of need. Seeing these two trends collide is compelling when you look at the chart.

Looking at the year-over-year comparison (top two lines compare total gift revenue, bottom two compare total number of gifts), there are two important trends to point out.

1. Donors gave earlier in the day and later at night than last year. Total revenue activity spiked the most in the afternoon of 2019’s Giving Tuesday, whereas we see early morning (8AM CST) and evening (7PM CST) spikes in 2020. We observed many nonprofits doing virtual events and live streaming around those times, which is likely to have created more revenue activity at those hours.

You could also infer that less activity is going on during the day relative to last year because there are more pressures to stay at your desk and appear active while working from home. It may be worth testing out various virtual event times for your nonprofit to see if these activity trends are similar for you.

2. Total number of gift transactions grew relatively consistently. The lack of spikes in the number of gifts reinforces the knowledge that donors give more gifts in smaller amounts on Giving Tuesday. Compared to the spikes in the revenue lines, you can correlate larger gifts being given during key hours.

Our favorite Giving Tuesday campaigns

We’re always so impressed by Kindful customers and how hard they work to do more good in the world. With that in mind, we wanted to share a few of their campaigns with you to highlight their important work.

Tennessee Alliance for Kids

Mission: Supporting children in foster care.

What we loved: That Tennessee Alliance for Kids started off their Facebook post by reflecting on all the positive things they’ve seen in such a trying year. By demonstrating the support they’ve already received, they’re showing how much they appreciate their donors. This appreciation doesn’t go unnoticed! People who have supported in the past will likely be motivated to give again because they know they’ve made an impact.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tennessee Alliance for Kids (@tennesseeallianceforkids)

Both Hands

Mission: Supporting widows and funding adoptions.

What we loved: That Both Hands founder JT Olson got into the Giving Tuesday spirit by jumping into a pile of leaves! This idea was fun, different, and called attention to the organization, which is important on a day when so many organizations are trying to get supporters to look their way.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Both Hands (@givebothhands)

AGAPE

Mission: Providing counseling and other resources to people in need.

What we loved: That they kept it simple! In a day where inboxes were overwhelmed with appeals, AGAPE made a good call keeping their email short and straightforward. By including a video from the Executive Director, they added a personal touch to the appeal. They also tied their donation levels to the impact donors will make, which is a compelling way to get people to donate.

NFL Alumni

Mission: Caring for kids.

What we loved: That NFL Alumni used Classy, a Kindful integration partner, to create a beautiful and compelling fundraising campaign. They also offered some incredible incentives to donors who gave a certain amount. This motivated supporters to make larger donations and to make those donations early in the day.

People Loving Nashville

Mission: Serving the unhoused community.

What we loved: That People Loving Nashville shared a short video to Instagram highlighting an exciting matching opportunity. This gives their supporters an extra reason to give knowing they’ll have double the impact.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by People Loving Nashville (@peoplelovingnashville)

Now that Giving Tuesday is over

Now that Giving Tuesday 2020 is behind us, we recommend taking some time and reflecting on this year’s efforts while they’re still fresh in your mind.

Here are a few questions you and your team can use to kickstart your reflection:

• What tactics or campaigns did you implement to make the most of Giving Tuesday?
• Were these efforts successful?
• Did you reach your Giving Tuesday goal? If so, which tactics or strategies were most effective?
• If you didn’t reach your goal, what do you think you could’ve done differently?
• How did your efforts compare to Giving Tuesday 2019? How will that inform what you do in 2021?
• Did anything surprise you?
• Did you see other organizations do something that you want to try next year or in future fundraising campaigns? If so, make a list of ideas so you can be ready for the next big fundraising push.
• How can you leverage your results in your year-end messaging to drive even more donations to your organization?

We hope this giving day gave you the momentum to finish off the year-end giving season strong! We can’t wait to see what’s next for you and what good you’ll do in 2021.