RNL Experts Unpack #GivingTuesday 2023 

Established in 2012, #GivingTuesday is a global movement that aims to maximize the collective power of “radical generosity,” driving giving to millions of organizations, causes, and needs on a single day.

I have worked in fundraising for almost 20 years and have given to more than 100 unique organizations in the last two years. I’m a fundraising addict. At the same time, Giving Tuesday is a noisy holiday. You can imagine what my email inbox and phone looked like on November 28 as I was bombarded with messages.

As a fundraising organization, you are competing with millions of other organizations for time, attention, and dollars. Breaking through that noise is hard, even if Americans are primed to receive the message after more than a decade of experiencing this holiday. There, having a good strategy to connect with donors on this important day is crucial.

Here are insights from the RNL experts about this year’s event, along with stats from our partner outreach.

We received a ton of fundraising appeals on #GivingTuesday, but some organizations were silent

The experience was similar for my colleagues at RNL. We traded e-appeals from various sources that showcased great stories, interesting asks, focused causes, or other unique elements that made the appeals stand out. We also noticed when we did not get solicited by orgs that we support regularly and wondered if we “didn’t make the cut” or if the organization was not participating at all.

A modest participation in the event is fine for many organizations. #GivingTuesday is not the panacea that I would put a ton of fundraising expectation around. It is, however, an event that I personally believe all nonprofit orgs who use the word “give” should plan to participate in in some way.

I will put it this way: Do not be like a donut shop that chooses not to celebrate National Donut Day. It is not required and it may not impact business, but it really looks out of touch with the market and the narratives in their social and direct marketing streams.

GivingTuesday results in over $3B in giving, but results were flat and donors down

Globally, #GivingTuesday results were flat. While nonprofits in the US raised $3.1 billion, the total number of individuals who contributed declined by 10%.

We are so inspired to see a show of generosity of this magnitude every year. Our goal with GivingTuesday, not just on the day itself but year-round, is to create an ecosystem of giving that helps communities, causes, and organizations across the globe. However, we are concerned to see a decline in participation in line with giving trends from the past year.

Asha Curran, #GivingTuesday’s Chief Executive Officer

Today, 11 years after its foundation, Giving Tuesday inspires giving in myriad ways—giving of time, nourishment, kindness, talents, and voice. And of course, money. While not all “gifts” are easily measured, as we work to create an environment that inclusive of all sorts of contributions, it is important that we give those non-monetary gifts equal appreciation. It is equally important as donor engagement professionals that we measure the impact of our engagement work that drives all types of giving.

RNL partners engaged in omnichannel outreach on #GivingTuesday with success

At RNL, we work with hundreds of higher ed, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations that use Giving Tuesday as part of their annual fundraising strategy. In the days following this important kick-off to the holiday giving season, we took some time to review the impact of #GivingTuesday for our partners. We looked at the dollars and donors, but we also evaluated the additional engagement that will serve as a better predictor for future, inclusive potential.

Image: The University of Hawaii featured a multi-cause campaign focused on impact with food insecurity.

This year, RNL worked with over 100 clients on #GivingTuesday-specific campaigns that resulted in 1.5 million touches of individual donor outreach, including a mix of channels and strategies. Those diverse and personalized campaigns resulted in:

• $7,036,302 committed to a variety of causes at client organizations.
• 24,631 unique donations to giving day or cause-driven crowdfunding campaigns on the RNL ScaleFunder platform

Driving that success were:

• 5,991 1:1 conversations with prospective donors
• 7,192 unique 1:1 text conversations with prospective donors
• 932,417 solicitation, stewardship, and engagement emails sent
• 8,239 personalized video messages created and sent
• 258,621 texts to donors and supporters

This is on top of the hundreds of RNL partners who utilize RNL Engage omnichannel engagement under their own management.

RNL fundraising experts sound off on #GivingTuesday 2023

In the days following Giving Tuesday, the RNL teams reflected on the results and provided their predictions for how this year’s results may foreshadow calendar year end outcomes for the charitable sector:

Giving Tuesday has shifted in the last five years from a distinct event to more of the kick-off to a six-week, end-of-calendar year/holiday giving season campaign. We are seeing that an omnichannel approach is successful in getting responses during a really noisy day. For example, one client wove #GivingTuesday language into phone call scripts, added an amplification text after the call, and sent a small text burst to non-donors. This effort doubled the number of commitments!

Melissa Adair, Associate Vice President

Giving Tuesday can be an engagement driver that helps to bridge other important solicitation campaigns. If your giving day is early in the new year, you can use low-lift 1:1 engagement vehicles like text and video to send Happy Thanksgiving messages that keep you top of mind while you might be taking a break from asking.

Sarah Myksin, Senior Vice President

It felt like for many organizations, GivingTuesday was just kind of “tired” this year. The messaging was pretty lackluster from most orgs that approached me. I had one friend receive 12 appeals from a single charity. Boring appeals and volume is a mediocre donor engagement strategy. I’m feeling like charities just don’t get it. I’ve walked past a ton of outdoor holiday charity drives where QR code to give via Venmo are the smallest thing on the sign, or there is no clear way to give online. It’s 2023. Let’s stop the 90’s theme party already.

Brian Gawor, CFRE, Vice President

Partners that achieved higher level of success were the ones with compelling, relatable stories that showed impact. You have to focus on what the giving is doing on a day so flooded with competing messages.

Sarah Patterson Glitsch, Associate Vice President

Overall, our take is that the organizations that were strategic with data-driven strategy had the most success.

Melissa explains: “Many orgs that focus efforts on donors who have given within the last five years will we see a greater opportunity for donor recapture during this global event.. It is about using your channels in a smart way. For example, email is a low-cost way to reach out to those long lapsed and future donors, and when we focus on the lapsed population with higher cost outreach, we are able to use the urgency of the event and the CYE season as good impetus for action.”

RNL experts predict calendar-year-end (CYE) 2023 fundraising

Based on these GivingTuesday results, here are some predictions about the trajectory for 2023 calendar year-end fundraising:

I predict we are going to see things flat as people at different economic levels are still uncertain. Consumer spending seems high, but philanthropy is low on the financial priority list for most households. Inflation is still high (extreme in areas like California), and people are feeling the pinch. They are going to spend on necessities and even gifts/experiences for their families and loved ones, but might cut back or wait on charitable support.

Becca Widmer, Senior Consultant

Brian: Let’s be careful when we look at national stats. I’d suggest that instead of saying “giving is down,” we say that “giving is different.” #GivingTuesday counts fundraising using mostly traditional data: gifts to official charities. People are giving in different ways that are not tracked through traditional systems. This includes technically non-charitable giving (like GoFundMe, etc.) and giving not tracked to an individual. We’ve discussed this with GivingUSA as well. I anticipate that 2024 will be a year of changed thinking of what defines “giving.” Individual people will be generous in creative ways, and mega-gifts will continue to break news.

Sarah G: As always, engagement is key. Our partners leaning into the omnichannel approach and moving beyond the ask are the ones seeing the best results. With the noise of #GivingTuesday and overall calendar-year-end mayhem, connecting personally (at scale) sets you apart.

Becca: Organizations that are building CYE strategies that specifically target growing giving vehicles such as DAFs will have better chance of hitting their financial goals. Also, its worth noting that the market hasn’t been terrible. Widen the net when sharing information about gifts of appreciated securities to those whom you may not normally include. We cannot assume that younger prospects don’t have stock income and tax burdens to alleviate. Follow the money.

If you are already tracking behind on your revenue or donor goals for the fiscal year and your CYE strategies are not casting a wider/different net, the trajectory you are on will not change. What was is it that Einstein said about insanity?

Key donor engagement recommendations for the end of 2024 and future #GivingTuesday fundraising

Again, I recommend that you do not ignore GivingTuesday, and incorporate it into your strategy. It is a day to celebrate philanthropy as part of a global movement. If you are raising money and driving engagement, you should be in the pool with the rest of the splashing kids.

But like all fundraising tools, I strongly suggest that you consider what purpose GivingTuesday can and should serve for you. Take your questions beyond, What appeals should we send? Ask things like: What challenge does GivingTuesday solve for use? Can we use the global event to drive engagement beyond giving in things like volunteering hours, ambassadorship, advocacy? For higher education organizations, can it be a driver for alumni-student-community engagement? For healthcare and other charities, is this an opportunity to showcase your providers and their impact?

Determine how GivingTuesday best aligns with your mission, your fundraising priorities, and your engagement goals. Ensure that you have the systems to capture and share (loudly) the impact of your giving community beyond the dollars raised. Use GivingTuesday as a launchpad to your full year-end efforts.

Figuring out how to incorporate GivingTuesday into your engagement strategy can be a challenge. We’ve this with hundreds of partners, and we are ready to help. Drop us a line and we will get the RNL experts to help you make a splash that engages your donors with meaning, purpose and all types of giving on this special holiday.