An estimated $3.6 billion was donated in the United States on GivingTuesday, a 16% increase from 2023’s total of $3.1 billion. More people participated in the 2024 event, with an estimated 36.1 million people taking action across the U.S, a 7% increase compared to last year. The revenue is a record for the 12-year-old event.

The percentage increase beat consumer spending for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Black Friday 2024 sales reached $10.8 billion, up 10.2% from $9.8 billion in 2023, according to Adobe Analytics. Cyber Monday 2024 sales reached $13.3 billion, a 10.7% gain from the $12.4 billion the corresponding day saw in 2023.

The GivingTuesaday data was collected and released by The GivingTuesday Data Commons. While some worldwide data was available, most financial compilations from outside the United States was not yet available. CanadaHelps, the country’s largest online platform for donating and fundraising, reported more than $16.2 million was raised for Canadian charities via CanadaHelps.org, a 19.5% increase compared to 2023. Among those who donated, nearly 28% were making a first-time donation via CanadaHelps.org, and more than 700 new monthly donations were set up on GivingTuesday, according to the firm.

The increase in dollars raised on GivingTuesday comes as recent Ipsos polling conducted by CanadaHelps highlighted that more than half of Canadians (56%) with annual household incomes below $60,000 are unsure if they can continue to afford basic needs such as food and shelter, or if they will need to turn to charities for assistance. The money raised before the December 31st tax deadline will be critical for the charities providing these life-saving services.

“Generosity isn’t just about money – it’s about connection and community,” Asha Curran, GivingTuesday’s chief executive officer said via a statement. “In a world that can feel increasingly divided, we’re seeing people unite through simple acts of kindness that have profound ripple effects.”

The fear that the number of donors would decline, as it has generally in fundraising, turnout out to be unfounded with 18.5 million financial donors participating, an increase of 4% compared to GivingTuesday 2023.

Not all participants gave cash. In the U.S., 12.9 million participants gave goods, an increase of 32% compared to last year. Participants who volunteered in the U.S. was estimated at 9.2 million, a 4% increase and those who spoke out about causes in the U.S. was estimated at 16.6 million, a 17% jump.

There were grassroots movements in 105 countries, according to the data released. This year Benin, Bolivia, Denmark, Panama, and Sri Lanka launched national GivingTuesday movements, and GivingTuesday launched its Europe Hub, which joins the Africa, India, Latin America & the Caribbean, and U.S. & Canada Hubs in providing on-the-ground support to regional GivingTuesday leaders.

The day appears to have been helped with head starts. “GivingTuesday increasingly goes beyond the day of Tuesday. More than a third (36%) of all programmatic advertising revenues came from giving in the four days before GivingTuesday, said Adva Priso, chief digital strategy officer of Moore, refencing the firm’s client data.

“Just as the commercial sector is extending their promotions well before and after designated timeframes to provide further opportunities for success (e.g., “Travel Tuesday” this year was extended to “Travel Tuesday Week”), we are finding that communications before and after GivingTuesday are equally critical in driving engagement and have a positive return,” said Priso.

Email solicitation from numerous organizations, such as Planned Parenthood of America, were sent to donors the day after the event.

DonorsChoose in New York City got off to an early start through a promo code sent to previous donors on Monday. DonorsChoose, which links “wish lists” for classroom and student supplies submitted by public school teachers, set a $5 million goal for the day. Due in part to a 50% match, the organization generated $5.5 million on GivingTuesday. The donations came from more than 27,000 funders who answered the call of more than 17,000 teachers.

DonorsChoose might have been proactively — correctly — conservative in its goal. While the $5.5 million exceeded expectations, it did not match the $6 million the organization generated during GivingTuesday 2023.

Pledges are tracked for a week at the Combined Federal Campaign, where the total online pledge result was $3.1 million, roughly 19% more than 2023. “Last year, around $2.5 million was pledged on GivingTuesday through the CFC. We have surpassed those numbers by more than a half million dollars,” said Danielle Byrd, program manager – CFC national marketing.

Promotion for the day was more expensive than in 2023. For example, Google search advertising costs increased 18% per click year-over-year, but the return on ad spend exceeded that by four times, according to Priso citing client data. Meta advertising cost per thousand increased 32%, but investment in Meta ads still brought in an average of nearly $3 for every $1 spent, according to Priso.

Data released by the platform Bloomerang showed 146,793 donations totaling $56 million, a 32% increase from 2023. Digital wallets accounted for 1,960 of the transactions. The platform had 9,513 organizations participating. A few significant pledges recorded came across the platform, some more than $500,000. The peak hour on the platform was 4 p.m. Eastern. The average gift was $349, up 9% from 2023.

At GlobalGiving, which provides an online platform for connecting donors, companies and nonprofits worldwide, donations slipped from just less than $3.7 million during GivingTuesday 2023 to slightly less than $3.4 million this year. The number of donations received declined as well, from 15,500 a year ago to 14,338. Average gift size was for the most part stable, slipping slightly under 1% from $238.59 during 2023 to $236.63 this year.

The good news for GlobalGiving was that the organization’s reach grew: In 2023, 1,279 organizations participated. This year, that number jumped. “We were thrilled to have 1,402 organizations join in our GivingTuesday campaign this year, the second highest number of nonprofits we’ve ever had participate,” GlobalGiving CEO Victoria Vrana told The NonProfit Times. “This shows needs in communities remain high. Even as donations and donor numbers saw a slight decline, every single gift made an impact, especially in these challenging times.”

Vrana is holding out hope for the remainder of the year, given reports of higher spending during the kickoff of the holiday shopping season. “Our research has shown that individual discretionary spending is often closely linked with giving behavior,” Vrana said. “While we can’t predict exactly what giving will look like this month, with discretionary spending up this year, we’re remaining hopeful for what’s ahead.”

Donors using the GoFundMe and Classy platforms contributed $65 million to roughly 65,000 nonprofits and individuals with slightly more than 6,000 new nonprofit recurring plans established. “We also saw a recurring capture rate that was 38% higher than last GivingTuesday, however, this was largely driven by a couple of large organizations, said Soraya Alexander, president of Classy and chief operating officer of GoFundMe.

“When we looked at customers who raised money on GivingTuesday both last year and this year, we saw a 5% increase in the average one-time donation amount,” said Alexander. “When you compare yesterday’s one-time gifts versus 2024 year-to-date one-time gift amounts, we saw close to a 12% increase in average one-time donation amounts, showing the desire to give more on GivingTuesday.

Arts and culture might have done particularly well. “We saw a 42% year-over-year increase in funds raised by arts, culture, and humanities organizations, while the group’s median donation amount had essentially no change,” said Alexander. Mental health and crisis intervention organizations had the largest year-over-year change in median gift size — up 88%, she said.

The overall number might bode well for the holiday giving season. “If GivingTuesday performance is any indication, we are very optimistic for a strong end to the year,” said Gretchen Littlefield, chief executive officer of Moore.

“This year’s record-breaking donations and participation demonstrate the incredible power of collective action,” Curran said via a statement. “When millions unite with a shared purpose, we don’t just give what we can — we create real, tangible change. Each donation, each act of generosity, is a building block for community solutions that actually make a difference.”

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Source From Non Profit Times