#GivingTuesday sees rise in donations over 5 years

In 2016, people gave $177M, up over 45 percent from previous year

Five years ago, when a New York nonprofit launched #GivingTuesday — the charitable sector’s answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday — Kissimmee’s Give Kids The World ran with the idea.

“The first year, we raised $25,000 that day. Then we jumped to $60,000 in 2013. And then the next year, we doubled it, to $120,000,” says Emily Wagner, brand engagement manager for the nonprofit resort village that offers weeklong vacations for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

“It has definitely been a very steady growth, and because of that, we are always looking to see: What can we do this year?”

As #GivingTuesday marks its sixth edition this week, it has blossomed into a global social-media darling, particularly among millennials. By 2015, nearly four in 10 of them said they planned to give on the designated day.

Among all ages, last year’s online donations totaled $177 million, up more than 45 percent from the previous year.

While that’s still minor in the big picture of philanthropy, for any given nonprofit, the day can mean a major boost.

“#GivingTuesday is really a phenomenal movement … and it has been interesting to watch it grow,” says Mark Brewer, president and CEO of the Central Florida Foundation, home to more than 400 charitable funds by and for the community. “It reminds me of the online retail cycle and how, in the early 2000s, when people talked about online sales at Christmas, they would say, ‘Oh, it’s only a couple of million dollars.’ Well, look at online sales today.”

Not that Brewer — or anyone else — expects #GivingTuesday to eclipse Black Friday. But it could eventually eclipse the amount people give through, for instance, charitable galas or year-end contributions timed to bolster tax writeoffs.

It’s also as likely to benefit small nonprofits as it is larger ones, Brewer contends.

“It levels the playing field,” he says. “Even if you’re a little organization nobody has ever heard of, if you’re pretty good on social media and you have a bunch of volunteers who are good on social media … there’s the ability to make a pretty good amount of money.”

In the movement’s first year, fewer than a dozen local nonprofits participated by signing up at Giving Tuesday.org and launching an online campaign.

And most of those charities did little more than make a few Facebook posts about the event.

This year, though, more than 2,100 Florida nonprofits have enlisted, scores of them from Central Florida, and the savvy ones have added incentives. Give Kids The World, for instance, has created a campaign to “show people you’re a #GivingTuesday Super Hero.” The pitch includes a super hero mask you can print out and color in, and, more significantly, an anonymous donor willing to match up to $40,000 in donations.

“That makes a difference to people,” Wagner says. “People understand that, ‘Oh, if I give $10, that becomes $20.’ That gives their donation a little more urgency.”

With so many nonprofits vying for attention on a single day, though, each has to find a way to stand out in the crowd.

At Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, for instance, President and CEO Bill Oakley says the focus will be on donating gently used clothing and household items.

“Because the field is so crowded with charities asking for cash, we want to let people know there are other things they can do — not that we aren’t interested in cash, but just to distinguish ourselves,” he says. “We’re reminding them that this is also a good time of year to clean out your closets and make an in-kind gift that Goodwill can convert to resources to support our mission.”

Oakley admits his group was slow to embrace #GivingTuesday but says volunteers persuaded him to engage.

“Some of them pointed out that #GivingTuesday has become a tradition for them over the last few years,” he says. “They’ll sit down on that day with a list of their favorite charities and just use that day to make their contributions. We certainly didn’t want to be conspicuous by our absence.”

This year, he says, the organization has created a social-media push around the day emphasizing Goodwill’s impact and sharing stories of people it has helped.

But one looming question about #GivingTuesday is whether it brings in money that people wouldn’t give otherwise, just on a different day.

“There’s no way to know,” Brewer says. “I doubt very seriously that it’s growing charitable giving overall ... although it could be like going out shopping on Black Friday for one thing, and then you see a TV for $400 and buy it.”

At Sanford’s Harvest Time International — a faith-based relief organization — Chief Operating Officer Andre Smolinsky says he hopes so. Though the charity has had lackluster results in past years, this time it has a more focused campaign, setting a fundraising goal of $50,000 to provide 1,000 families with a week’s worth of food and toys for Christmas.

“We are putting more effort into it,” Smolinsky says. “I just don’t get why it isn’t held on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving — before people go out and buy that $400 TV.”