NEW YORK — Nonprofit organization GivingTuesday estimates that donors gave $3.1 billion this year on what has become one of the most important fundraising days of the year: the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
Donations rose by $20 million on Tuesday, up 0.6% from last year before adjusting for inflation, the nonprofit said. GivingTuesday makes its estimate based on data from donor management software companies, donation platforms, payment processors and donor-advised funds.
“On one hand, this is fantastic,” said Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer of GivingTuesday. “Tens of millions of people in the US once again came together to make a huge impact for causes they care about, including donating a huge amount of money in a 24-hour period.”
But donor numbers were down about 10% from 2022, which Rosenbaum called a worst-case scenario for the sector: “We’re seeing fewer dollars from the major donor we rely on and fewer grassroots donors who are so important. to our resilience and the long-term health of the sector.”
Nonprofits and industry groups are warning that donations are down this year, following a decline in overall charitable giving in 2022 for only the fourth time in 40 years, according to Giving USA.
It is still too early to know whether the end-of-year gifts will attract donations to charities again this year.
Elaine Kenig, chief communications officer at Vanguard Charitable, which manages donor-advised funds, said about 30% of the total grant dollars donated from those accounts each year are spent in the last two months of the calendar year.
“We’re definitely leaning into those traditional cycles of giving, which I think GivingTuesday really taps into,” she said.
But their account holders also responded with urgency to major events like the wildfires that devastated Maui in August, Kenig said.
“Giving is the most fun and the best thing you can do. And you probably get more out of it than you give,” says Naomi Thompson, who works for a cancer charity in Northern Ireland. Particularly if donors feel like they have less to give, she suggested thinking carefully about whether the organization’s work has an impact on the donor’s community.
GivingTuesday’s estimates do not include gifts to mutual aid groups, donations to political organizations or gifts made directly to individuals, Rosenbaum said. Still, the results may indicate that more difficult times lie ahead.
“When we see this increase in the average donation on GivingTuesday,” Rosenbaum said, “we see it as a warning sign, not something we should look for.”
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