Helping Nonprofits in Crisis

Yes—far more.

Many people know GivingTuesday only as the popular hashtag or global day of giving that follows Black Friday. What’s less understood is that GT is also a deeply coordinated, strategic movement and a dedicated nonprofit organization with a global infrastructure. Several of its functions include:

1. Facilitating and supporting national-level campaigns in 109 countries and supports partners, nonprofits and CSOs year-round. These include hundreds of nonprofits, civil society organizations, coalitions, funders, plus community to national leaders. GT pursues partnerships through:
   • National, regional, and municipal governments
   • Philanthropic institutions and community foundations
   • Grassroots organizations and local leaders
2. GT promoting systemic change through inspiring generosity, including:
   • Diaspora giving: People giving back to countries or communities they are originally from.
   • Volunteerism: Mobilizing people to donate time and skills, including high level skills in some cases.
   • In-kind giving: Donations of food, clothes, services, or professional expertise.
   • Direct service and mutual aid: Supporting networks of care and solidarity.
3. GT Host’s a World-Leading Giving Commons: One of the lesser-known but most powerful tools developed by GivingTuesday is its sector leading Giving Commons—an open, shared data infrastructure for understanding generosity behavior globally.

   This Commons is used by:

   • Universities such as Stanford, MIT, and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
   • Large-scale data platforms and civil society networks
   • Nonprofits, think tanks, and funders seeking insights into giving patterns

   The commons provides real-time dashboards, behavioral research, trend analysis, and technical tools that enable more effective giving campaigns and smarter policy design.

   D. GivingTuesday Builds Capacity for Nonprofits and Movements, including:

   • Workshops, resources, and strategy sessions offered throughout the year.
   • A soon-to-launch interactive online bot that will help up to 50,000 nonprofits build customized fundraising plans for their 2025 campaigns. The bot uses a series of questions to generate individualized materials like campaign messages, emails, and social media content.
   • An upcoming 12-part curriculum, currently in development, designed to train nonprofit and civil society leaders in effective fundraising, storytelling, campaign planning, and community engagement.
4. GivingTuesday is a Hub for Collaboration Across the Social Sector
   Another aspect of GivingTuesday is its role in connecting platforms, funders, and movements. It actively works to improve sector-wide coordination by encouraging shared infrastructure—such as linkable maps across platforms that let nonprofits discover and access a wide array of services, tools, and collaborators.

Yes — in many cases. But said more accurately, GT serves as a global activation mechanism that channels funding across the full spectrum of social impact work. Some work is deeply systemic and long-term. Other nonprofits address urgent, immediate needs and everything in between.

It’s a fair question — and one that applies not just to GivingTuesday, but to the entire social sector. If so many people, organizations, and donors are doing so much, why do so many serious problems persist?

What Would the World Look Like Without GivingTuesday?
GivingTuesday has become one of the most widely recognized and leading global movements for generosity, spanning 107 countries, mobilizing tens of millions of people annually, and being an active participant in raising over $18 billion. But it’s easy to overlook one essential truth:

Without GivingTuesday there would be:

• Fewer new donor acquisition opportunities for nonprofits
• Lower public awareness of generosity as a shared civic value
• Less coordinated, data-informed philanthropy
• Weaker local and national nonprofit ecosystems — especially in the Global South
• Fewer cross-border donations, in-kind giving, or volunteer activation

A large portion of donations on GivingTuesday are additive. Here is why:

1. Long-run trend analysis shows a true bump, not a shift.
   The GivingTuesday Data Commons maintains a decade-long database of daily donation flows. By mapping “normal” year-end giving patterns, their analysts can isolate the GivingTuesday spike and still see higher-than-expected totals for the full fourth quarter—evidence that dollars raised on the day are largely incremental, not merely pulled forward.
   GivingTuesday Data Commons and GivingTuesday.
   
2. Untapped donors are being asked—and they respond.
   Nearly half of Americans say they never recall a nonprofit asking them to give in a given quarter; of those, 9 percent say they would have donated if someone had asked. GivingTuesday’s mass, coordinated outreach fills that solicitation gap, converting people who otherwise would have stayed on the sidelines. GivingTuesday
3. First-time and lapsed supporters re-enter the pipeline.
   Movement-wide data show roughly one-third of participants give to a new organization each year, and a measurable share of lapsed donors reactivate on—or because of—GivingTuesday campaigns. These gifts add to, rather than cannibalize, regular annual budgets. Lookback
4. Social-proof dynamics trigger “extra” generosity.
   Real-time counters, hashtag feeds, and peer-to-peer appeals create a powerful bandwagon effect: people give because they see friends, influencers, and companies doing the same. Behavioral science research calls this the “herd” or “nudge” effect; it sparks impulse gifts that weren’t pre-budgeted.
5. Corporate matches and flash challenges unlock fresh money.
   Brands roll out one-day matching pools, #GivingTuesday takeovers, and employee-match boosts that simply don’t exist on ordinary days, injecting truly new capital into the system.
6. Multiple forms of generosity rise together.
   GivingTuesday lifts not just cash but goods donations and volunteering. When 36% donate money and another 38% give time or items, nonprofits receive additional resources they wouldn’t have captured in a typical appeal cycle. Neon One
7. The deadline effect creates “found” budget room.
   A widely publicized 24-hour deadline prompts donors to earmark extra discretionary funds—much like year-end clearance sales spur unplanned retail spending—without noticeably depressing December’s broader giving totals.
8. Repeat behavior sustains the additive bump.
   In the most recent cycle, 80% of donors who set up a recurring gift on GivingTuesday made another donation by year-end, indicating the day serves as a start, not a substitute, for deeper engagement. Neon One
9. Real-time counters, hashtag feeds, and peer-to-peer appeals. These create a powerful bandwagon effect: people give because they see friends, influencers, and companies doing the same. Behavioral science research calls this the “herd” or “nudge” effect; it sparks impulse gifts that weren’t pre-budgeted.
10. Corporate matches and flash challenges unlock fresh money.
11. Brands roll out one-day matching pools, #GivingTuesday takeovers, and employee-match boosts that simply don’t exist on ordinary days, injecting truly new capital into the system.
12. Multiple forms of generosity rise together.
13. GivingTuesday attracts not just cash but goods donations and volunteering. When 36% donate money and another 38% give time or items, nonprofits receive additional resources they wouldn’t have captured in a typical appeal cycle. Neon One
14. The deadline effect creates “found” budget room.
15. Widely publicized 24-hour deadline prompts donors to earmark extra discretionary funds—much like year-end clearance sales spur unplanned retail spending—without noticeably depressing December’s broader giving totals.
16. Repeat behavior sustains the additive bump.
17. In the most recent cycle, 80% of donors who set up a recurring gift on GivingTuesday made another donation by year-end, indicating the day serves as a start, not a substitute, for deeper engagement. Neon One

Yes, In addition to running its 2025 media campaign, GT will offer nonprofits two benefits not yet mentioned:

1. Provide its first interactive on-site bot to assist thousands of nonprofits with their 2025 GT campaigns. Nonprofits answer a series of bot-generated questions, and the bot will produce individualized presentations to raise money this December.
2. Provide thousands of nonprofits with a 12-module curriculum to improve their abilities to secure funding on GivingTuesday. This series complements the bot program.

If possible, please make a donation so we can move this campaign forward.  The sooner we receive funding, the more quickly GivingTuesday can continue advertising. Every dollar you give will go toward ad-buys. You can take the next steps by contacting us here.