Giving Tuesday: A Day of Global & Digital Giving

Charitable efforts are something we get behind year-round, but giving back to a nonprofit you want to support had a different definition back in the day. To donate you had to show up in person with that cash money to know it’s going to the source. There also wasn’t one shared day where everyone all over the world was doing the same thing. The internet had other plans for this.

Giving Tuesday is the world’s largest generosity day that takes place every year in November on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving Day. While the day after and days following T-giving are the cue for all things holiday and shopping deals, a movement formed for dollars to go somewhere intentional. Here’s a rundown of how it began and how it has increased awareness and fundraising for nonprofits.


How It Started

This day of doing good first took place in 2012. The organization 92nd Street Y in New York City partnered with the United Nations Foundation to designate a single day named Giving Tuesday to “encourage people in the world to go good in the world.” The motivation was to take the framework of a Black Friday and Cyber Monday and direct it towards giving back. Companies like Mashable, Huffington Post and Google helped spread the word around the launch. Giving Tuesday has since gone on every year, and it became its own nonprofit organization in July 2019.

Impact Over the Years

Giving Tuesday prompts consumers and retailers to support nonprofits and causes they care about. While that’s still prominent, the flip side is nonprofit organizations also use this day to bring awareness and plan fundraising campaigns for themselves, especially through digital efforts. They can take the online conversation into their own hands and lean into the virality of social media.

There’s no denying that Giving Tuesday amplifies the voices of these causes through the variety of social media platforms. In 2019 the hashtag #GivingTuesday saw more than 20 billion social media impressions. Giving Tuesday’s focus on online giving has also helped the mission and its benefitting non-profits attain reach on a global scale. The Giving Tuesday 2020 Impact Report showed that social media activity for Giving Tuesday last year was present in every country and territory around the world.

The viral day of giving has resulted in monumental increases in donations to non-profits year after year. After the first Giving Tuesday in 2012, there was already double the increase in donations the following year in 2013. Then the first fundraising record was in 2018 with $400 million raised in total. Last year in 2020, Giving Tuesday raised a record $2.47 billion in the US alone. This reflected a whopping 29% increase from 2019. Overall, the combined increase of social media usage and online conversations reflect the desire to give back, and the years of increased donations correlate with that.

What’s Next

Long story short – there’s going to be a continued increase in giving back, and while we’ve had our own thoughts about Giving Tuesday in years past there’s data that indicates a substantial amount of rewards for nonprofits who engage with the event. According to a survey performed by The National Today data science team, 25% of Americans plan on participating in Giving Tuesday. This will support the upward trend of charitable giving, which is expected to increase 5.7% in 2022.

There’s also a breadth of rollouts across various social media platforms that point to continued efforts to support this day. For example, Meta is rolling out new fundraising features ahead of this year’s Giving Tuesday across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, including a new “Giving Exchange” feature. TikTok is also hosting its first #GivingSzn celebration this year that’ll feature live programming from creators and non-profit organizations, including fundraisers and community-rallying moments around the world.

There’s no slowing down on where the impacts of giving back on Giving Tuesday will take nonprofits and individuals in the years to come. As an agency with impact focused clients, we want to be mindful of what’s contributing to the conversation of giving back. Giving Tuesday shouldn’t isolate donating to just one day out of the year, however it’s interesting to observe how digital pivots have optimized the success of this giving event. The emergence of new social media platforms and new functions on existing platforms is increasing awareness for causes to give back to as well as increasing transparency for where a donor’s money is going.

There's also something to be said for nonprofits feeling empowered to market themselves and having Giving Tuesday being an occasion to do so. This in turn encourages engagement and collaboration between the social media users and the nonprofits. Overall, there seems to be optimism to be had towards Giving Tuesday’s long-term goals and how we as an agency and individuals can expand on them and contribute.