It’s the beginning of December, but it’s the end of the year — that magical time when nearly one-third of charitable giving occurs. Over the next three weeks, we will focus on different aspects of year-end giving. This week we look into online giving.
A recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy listed online fundraising as more important now than ever before, and both the data and our experience support this claim.
The little charitable birthday appeals that our friends and family post in our Facebook feed? They’re not so little. More than $300 million was raised in one year.
The Giving Tuesday messages that inundated your inboxes last week? A record $62.6 million was given this year, with an average gift of $147. Of those donations, 29% were made via mobile devices.
That website upgrade you’ve been planning? Move it to the top of your priority list. A majority of survey respondents said they would give more if it was easier. For some, an outdated website made them question how well the organization was managed.
In partnership with Network for Good, the Chronicle of Philanthropy tracks online giving in a dynamic data dashboard that provides tremendous insight into patterns and trends. In a rolling 13-month total, 1.5 million donors gave online. Those donors made 2.6 million donations totaling more than $313 million to 35,430 nonprofits. It further lists New Year’s Eve as the peak of online giving in 2017, with $14.4 million given online before the ball dropped.
In the end, online giving counts more than you may realize.
Article by: Kerri Laubenthal Mollard, Founder & CEO