RNL ScaleFunder Platform Exceeds $1.2B Raised in Giving Day and Cause-Driven Crowdfunding Fundraising

We are excited to announce that the RNL ScaleFunder platform has achieved a key milestone, crossing over a billion dollars in charitable support. Since its inception in 2012 the platform has hosted over 41,000 campaigns, and logged 3.6 million gifts totaling $1.23 billion in support. The actual dollars raised are higher, because we know that many major and planned gifts are incubated by these great engagement efforts.

As a former RNL ScaleFunder partner who now has the responsibility for guiding the platform, I’ve had a chance to see the community grow. Here are a few key takeaways from what I’ve seen:

Giving Days fuel broad-based engagement and major gift pipeline in advancement

• Giving days are more than a trend. They are now an indispensable part of the advancement effort. When giving days gain the full backing of an organization – from senior leadership, from organization and academic leaders, from student organizations, they can become a unifier. And with a full year of planning, they really take off. They become a key part of an organization’s powerful giving message.
• And giving days are about all levels of giving. Major gifts drive the big giving day numbers we are seeing and help build excitement. In fact, three quarters of giving day dollars now come from gifts entered outside of online gifts on the big day. Many of those are major gifts.
• Most shops now ask their big givers to agree to giving day challenge or match commitments in addition to a substantial annual gift, and we hear that big donors are responding at a high rate with excitement.

See the best of the best giving days

Watch our webinar on the 2023 “Giveys,” our awards for higher ed and nonprofit institutions that have innovated and had tremendous success with their giving days. This entertaining and informative webinar will give you plenty of ideas for donor engagement, omnichannel outreach, gamification, social media, and more.

Watch now

Cause-driven engagement is enhanced by a social, low friction, crowdfunding experience

• Online and social giving really took off during the pandemic. This was necessary to fill emergency needs, but it stuck. There was an explosion in online philanthropy, and organizations woke up to the relevance and importance of how inclusive and engaging this type of giving can be.
• Crowdfunding, digital giving, and giving days on the ScaleFunder platform greatly benefited from this impact investment revolution. We now see incredible engagement across numerous cause areas, constituencies and areas of campuses, and large organizations. Many large universities even organize “seasons” of crowdfunding campaigns.
• Making giving easy is crucial. We are fielding as many questions about payment providers, and offering Venmo, PayPal, Apple Pay, and other digital wallet checkout options as any other topic these days. And innovations in multi-gift checkout, joint credit, and other friction reduction enhancements for donors have been crucial to our roadmap.

We will keep sharing data and key insights from RNL ScaleFunder partners

We always believe in sharing key benchmarks from our partners, and you can check out results from the 2022 Giving Days in the RNL Giving Day Insights publication from earlier this year.

You can also check out webinars, blogs from the RNL team published regularly, or connect with us at an upcoming workshop. The value of the RNL ScaleFunder community is about a combination of platform and people. You need great tech and help to provide a great donor experience in today’s giving environment. I am excited to join the rest of the ScaleFunder team with you as we chart a course to the next few billion in impact-driven charitable support, one great donor experience at a time.