Another Giving Tuesday is one for the books! According to the organization that created the international day of generosity, this year’s online and offline donations crushed a monumental milestone: almost $2 billion in donations in the United States alone, with $511 million in online donations.
“Generosity is a core trait and value that brings people of all races, faiths, and political views together,” said Asha Curran, Co-founder and CEO of GivingTuesday. “GivingTuesday creates a shared space where we can see the radical implications of a more generous world.”
During its inception in 2012, Giving Tuesday generated $10 million in total donations. Since then, the campaign has grown exponentially. In 2018, Giving Tuesday led to a whopping $400 million in donations, which led to worries about the plateau or decrease of giving in the future, particularly because of the U.S.’s changing federal tax laws. So for 2019’s total to leave it in the dust ($511 million in online donations and almost $2 billion in online and offline donations) hints to an encouraging future.
As an organization and an initiative, Giving Tuesday finds strong support in a cadre of generous participants who have taken part in the campaign for multiple years running.
Among Giving Tuesday’s funders are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Fidelity Charitable, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Lodestar Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The organization’s board includes members from supporting funders and prominent industry leaders from successful nonprofits and charitable organizations.
Furthermore, Giving Tuesday has an incredible partner in PayPal: while PayPal has taken part in Giving Tuesday every year since 2012, this year they took the partnership a step further with Giving Tuesday Headquarters, where board members and team members could celebrate victories and collect statistics in real time from PayPal’s New York City offices.
This year, PayPal doubled down on its efforts to support GivingTuesday. Through its giving platform (hosted at paypal.com/giveback), PayPal aims to continue the spirit of GivingTuesday through the end of the year.
“In 2012, Giving Tuesday started as a simple way to encourage people everywhere—and make it easier for them—to do good by donating time, expertise or money to causes they were passionate about,” reads PayPal’s introduction on their #giveback website. “Now, Giving Tuesday has become a global phenomenon. Inspiring people in communities around the world to help. In any way they can. You were inspired. And we were inspired. So this December we’re making every Tuesday a Giving Tuesday. We’re inviting everyone to consider how much they can help someone in their community or halfway around the world. And to think of every Tuesday as a special day to make life better, anywhere, for others.”
Participants can make deduction- and fee-free donations to a lengthy list of supported charities and nonprofits through the PayPal platform.
This new charitable campaign reflects the boom in giving seen across the sector this year. Human services, like those focused on food and shelter for the less fortunate, topped the charts of charitable contributions this year. Community and local initiatives, education, health, arts/culture, and environmental campaigns rounded out the rest of this year’s top contributions.
The success of this year’s Giving Tuesday points to a general growth in generosity. In the current political and social climate, this increase in collective giving comes as a welcome relief.
This year, we’re pleased to report a total of $2,000 in donations to Philanthropy Women between our incredible supporters and a generous donation-matching gift from The Sister Fund. While Giving Tuesday is just one day of the year, we hope to see a similar increase in global giving during the rest of the calendar year.
“We continue to be amazed by the amount of tangible and intangible measures of generosity expressed in every corner of the world,” said Curran, GivingTuesday’s CEO and co-founder. “Our ultimate goal is to inspire generosity not just on just one day a year, but to transform the way we think about and act on giving year long. This year’s new estimate of both online and offline giving is one more step we’re taking toward reflecting the scale and power of GivingTuesday as a movement.”
2020 promises to be a year of change. The tumultuous election season in the United States, paired with global initiatives surrounding climate change, human rights, and social protections for women, children, and members of our LGBTQIA+ community, is pointing to a high-octane year of conversations and social flow powered by funding from individual donors and large foundations alike.
If there’s one thing the feminist giving sector can take away from 2019’s Giving Tuesday, it’s this: the feeling that we can all take heart, because the sentiment behind collective generosity is not going away.
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