Loading...

Survey: #GivingTuesday Donors Intend To Give More
givingtuesday-donors-intend-to-give-more

Donors who intend to participate in #GivingTuesday plan on giving larger gifts, with almost two of five respondents to a recent survey planning to give more than last year.

Some 39 percent of respondents plan to donate more this year than in 2018. Only 10 percent said they plan to give less while half plan to donate the same amount.

“Why America Gives 2019: How current events, technology, and seasonality impact donors plans,” by San Diego, Calif.-based fundraising platform Classy, surveyed 1,000 adults in the U.S. in September.

One in five Americans said they plan to participate in #GivingTuesday on Dec. 3 while 90 percent of those who participated in 2018 plan to give to the same causes or nonprofits this year, according to a new survey.

The most popular gift segment was between $51 and $100, about 19 percent, down from 20 percent in 2018. About 44 percent of those surveyed planning to donate at least $100 or more, compared with 36 percent who said the same last year. Gifts of $100 or less might trend downward while gifts of $100 or more could trend upward. 

Younger generations are more aware of #GivingTuesday — and more likely to participate — than their older counterparts. Precisely half of Gen Z (ages 18 to 22) have heard of #GivingTuesday, compared with 39 percent of Millennials (23 to 38) and 38 percent of Gen X (39 to 54), and a third of Baby Boomers (55 to 73). A quarter of Generation X said they plan to participate in #GivingTuesday this year, compared with 17 and 18 percent for other generations, including Millennials, Baby Boomers, and Gen Z.

Only 36 percent of surveyed said they felt more generous this year, while 28 percent said they feel less generous, compared to 36 percent who said their generosity remained the same. The survey hypothesized that the shift could be a result of frequently discussed impact of tax reform on giving habits.

The Classy survey results suggest that nonprofits embrace #GivingTuesday as a way to gain donors and turn their loyalty into recurring donations.” According to Classy, those whose first interaction with a nonprofit was on #GivingTuesday became recurring donors more quickly than those whose first interactions were outside #GivingTuesday.

In 2017, the median age of a #GivingTuesday donor on the Classy platform was 25 — 12 years younger than the median donor age on other days of the year. Two-thirds of Gen Xers who had heard of #GivingTuesday said they donated in 2018, the highest proportion among all generations. 

Nearly half of Americans (43 percent) said the amount they received on their 2019 tax return has no impact on how much they plan to donate this year. Only 32 percent were extremely to very knowledgeable about the impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). That could signify that they are not anticipating any change since they don’t understand the implications of the new tax law.

More than half of consumers (52 percent) who are extremely to very knowledgeable about how tax return has impacted their annual returns said they would decrease contributions to nonprofits if they knew they’d receive less of a tax break.

“We used our survey as a means to show nonprofits what matters to their potential donors, how they prefer to donate, which causes inspire them, and much more,” Classy CEO Scot Chisholm said in the report.

Two-thirds of respondents said their primary motivations for giving are to help a cause they care about, compared with 72 percent in 2018.

Disaster relief continues to be the most likely cause people plan to donate to, 41 percent compared to 43 percent in 2018. Yet, only one in five respondents indicated they already made a donation in 2019 to rescue or rebuilding efforts.