At Starfish Impact, the team always keeps an ear to the ground to stay abreast of the latest trends in the nonprofit sector. With about a third of a nonprofit’s fundraising budget raised in the last month of the year, #GivingTuesday is the unofficial kickoff of year end giving. These are a few trends we noticed from 2017’s #GivingTuesday:
- Businesses are increasingly getting involved in #GivingTuesday. GEICO and Ralph’s & Food 4 Less matched donations for Rady Children’s Hospital.
- Many companies, giving circles, and associations offered contests in which a few nonprofits could be selected by public vote for a donation on #GivingTuesday. Hispanics in Philanthropy offered a crowd funded contest that generated $250,000.
- There seemed to be little messaging of #GivingTuesday prior to the day of overall.
- Many nonprofits took the opportunity to also feature new information, statistics, or research with their #GivingTuesday messaging – either hoping to take advantage of the increased exposure or attempting to distinguish themselves from the many asks. Opportunity Place, for example, featured a summary of their accomplishments from the previous year.
- Most matching gift incentives seemed to primarily be double matches. For example, Facebook offered a match with the Gates Foundation of up to $50,000 per nonprofit, or $1,000 per fundraiser or donate button — up to the maximum of the matching funds of $2,000,000.
- Continuing a common theme from previous years, asks were heavily driven by images and simple messaging like the Red Cross or Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
- Many nonprofits offered mid day updates on their progress towards the goal in an effort to rally donors around reaching the goal like Give Kids the World Village
Take a look at last year’s #GivingTuesday campaign trends here or for inspiration on how to utilize these trends towards other fundraising campaigns, read (or reread) this article on preparing for a campaign like #GivingTuesday.
.
Sign up here to receive the highlights from the Starfish Impact blog in your inbox.
