Hollywood, MD – Ok, are you ready? After we put down the turkey last Thursday for Thanksgiving, we then had Black Friday, then Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Don’t forget they added #GivingTuesday! What were those New Yorkers thinking back in 2012 when it was founded? This was the first-of-its-kind movement that has engaged 10,000 organizations worldwide!
I will tell what we native New Yorkers think – “We think that people everywhere want to show how much they care for others.”
#GivingTuesday was founded by New York’s 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. For the past four years, this global day of giving has been the Tuesday after Thanksgiving here in the U.S.
Executive Director Henry Timms of New York’s 92nd Street Y stated that the concept of #GivingTuesday came from dedicating two days to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “We wanted to create, in the words of one of our early advisers and supporters, an opening day for the giving season.”
The fundraising emails and snail-mail solicitations have started coming from various organizations by this time of year. Everyone is campaigning for public contributions and there are so many to choose from. Children’s National Medical Center is always number on the list for my family of organizations to support financially.
Now how do you track all that financial online giving? That is where the company Blackbaud comes into the picture. Blackbaud is a founding partner of #GivingTuesday and responsible for tracking online giving trends of U.S. organizations.
Timms said that every year their organization is seeing more creative and impactful campaigns and collaborations. #GivingTuesday has grown because of so many people – from interns to their organizations, their church, their friends, the communities, etc.
According to latest trend research by Blackbaud, Faith-based organizations are giving the most generously and consistently. There are always well publicized stories of how Faith-based organizations raised millions of dollars in short periods of time using the #GivingTuesday specific campaign.
By 2014, Faith-based organizations raised 21 percent of all the #GivingTuesday donations. However, other organizations like higher education, healthcare, human services and medical research have been lagging in online giving for the past 16 years.
Breaking free from a culture that is rooted in a different funding process has been hard for some sectors. These types of organizations have consistently raised funds through smaller portion fundraising activities.
An online average gift amount exceeds $100 for most organizations. About 17 percent of online donation for views on #GivingTuesday were on a mobile device.
#GivingTuesday has had double-digit growth year after year since its birth in 2012. Let’s see how well 2016 goes.
Contact Shertina Mack at s.mack@TheBayNet.com
