GivingTuesday 2024—all I can say is, “Wow!”
The global day of generosity just set new records this year with $3.6 billion donated and 36.1 million people participating in the U.S. alone. That’s incredible to see after the 2023 results showed a concerning decline in participation and flat year-over-year results.
Our team of digital experts analyzed online giving for 54 RKD clients who raised a whopping $6.5 million on GivingTuesday. Our clients saw a 15% increase in revenue on GivingTuesday and a 20% increase for their full GivingTuesday campaigns.
Here are some additional observations that stood out:
1. Gamification was a success
We tested new tactics and strategies this year that brought in elements of gamification to stand out on a very busy day.
Rather than day-long match campaigns, some clients distributed match “power hours” throughout the day. Others had unannounced “flash matches” that surprised donors. Both tactics generated increased engagement and enthusiasm.
Several clients tried to draw donors’ attention by having them spin a wheel to see how much their gift match would multiply.
But my personal favorite was this gorgeous gift box GIF that appeared in an email from the Atlanta Community Food Bank, who saw a 42% increase in GivingTuesday revenue this year.
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2. An early start helped
I’m sure you’ve noticed that Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are no longer contained to their specific days. Retailers are extending those offers to week-long promotions.
We thought: Why can’t we do the same for GivingTuesday?
Several of our clients started running digital media campaigns in the week leading up to the big day to inspire donors to act. In many cases, the donors didn’t wait to show their generosity.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, for example, saw 9% of their total GivingTuesday revenue come in before they launched their first GivingTuesday email.
3. And a late finish closed the day
GivingTuesday is always a busy day for those of us working in the nonprofit sector. But it can be a hectic day for donors, too.
Take a moment to put yourself in their shoes.
Many took the previous week off to spend with family and friends for Thanksgiving. Then, they got bombarded with retail promotions and the rush of holiday shopping. They returned to work on Monday and Tuesday and had to play catchup on their tasks before getting a chance to unwind at home.
That’s why we also had numerous clients who saw their days start out slow and pick up in the afternoon and sometimes into the evening. And the generosity flowed even up to midnight and beyond.
Below, you can see the breakdown of giving by time of day for one of our large food banks, and a third of the revenue came after 6 p.m.
4. Texting was a big win again
In 2023, we tracked the results of text messaging for the first time, and we saw a strong response for our clients.
Texting was a big success again this year as even more clients jumped at the opportunity to do both broadcast and peer-to-peer texting. In 2023, 24 clients sent out more than 238,000 texts. In 2024, 41 clients (and counting) sent out more than 298,000 texts.
We were concerned that the sheer amount of texts sent during the election cycle might dampen the results, and the response rate was 17.2% lower. However, we saw a big jump of 31.5% in average gift size from $99.46 in 2023 to $130.80 in 2024.
Nashville Humane Association was one of the organizations that added text messaging this year, and they saw a tremendous response with a 6.93 return on investment. They were thrilled with the results:
“We blew past our goal thanks to this campaign, nearly doubling what we raised online in the last couple of years!” said Katie Johantges, Development Specialist at Nashville Humane Association.
“The addition of this P2P text campaign was the most significant change we made between this year and last year. I received the text and thought it looked great and made it super easy to donate!"
Using these insights, hopefully you can make any adjustments you need for your year-end strategy and future campaigns.
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