Giving Tuesday 2019: What We Saw During The Biggest Year Yet

Now that one of the biggest giving days of the year is in the books, we wanted to share a recap post about Giving Tuesday 2019. We’ll include information on Kindful customers and how much they raised, data from GivingTuesday.org, and what we recommend doing now that Giving Tuesday is behind us.

2019 Giving Tuesday Statistics

This Giving Tuesday was one for the books for Kindful customers. In 2018, organizations using Kindful raised $1.4 million online on Giving Tuesday. This year, that number increased by 50% to $2.1 million.

That wasn’t surprising news to us considering that online donation pages hosted by Kindful saw a 1,151% increase in the number of donations compared to the average daily volume.

We often hear from organizations wondering if participating in Giving Tuesday is “worth it.” In our opinion this data proves that it’s more than worth it. In fact, we’ve seen that potential donors are actively looking to contribute to organizations that day; even if all you can manage is an email and a social post, you’ll be putting yourself in a great position to garner some of that financial support for your mission.

Highlights From GivingTuesday.org

The data is in! Here’s what GivingTuesday.org shared about this year’s global day of giving:

The GivingTuesday Data Collaborative reports that on GivingTuesday 2019, in the U.S., online giving increased from $400 million in 2018 to $511 million. Further, GivingTuesday estimates total online and offline giving at $1.97 billion, based on a newly developed statistical model.

Those weren’t the only impressive numbers to surface. According to the organization, PayPal surpassed $100 million donated in one day for the first time ever on Tuesday.

Now That Giving Tuesday Is Over

One thing we recommend doing is gathering your core staff and reviewing this year’s campaign.

Here are a few questions you could ask:

• Overall, how was Giving Tuesday? Did you consider it a successful day?
• How did your organization do compared to last year?
• What could have gone better?
• What worked better than expected?
• What surprised you?
• What activities did you see from other organizations that you want to try next year?
• How can you leverage your results in year-end messaging?

We also recommend thanking your donors as soon as possible. Consider creating a powerful nonprofit thank you video to show your supporters how much you appreciate them for donating and engaging with your Giving Tuesday campaign. This post from Classy* with 15 creative ways to thank your donors is a good place to start if you’re looking for ideas.

At the end of the day, however, it doesn’t matter how you choose to thank your donors. The most important thing is that you take the time to thank them. It’s an important way to close out Giving Tuesday, and it might even bring in some last-minute end-of-year donations or help you retain your donors.

*indicates that this organization is an integration partner