Giving Tuesday in New York

What started in 2012 as an online, charity-driven follow-up to turkey, malls and holiday travel, Giving Tuesday has grown exponentially from $12 million in donations raised that first year to $116.7 million in 2015. As nonprofits around the country embrace the online fundraising initiative, some New York organizations are thinking outside the box in order to engage new donors this Nov. 29 and make their appeals stand out amid congested social media channels and cluttered email inboxes.

Giving Tuesday is a day of online advocacy that has its roots in a collaboration between the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation. But, according to Asha Curran, the chief innovation officer and director of the 92Y’s Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact, the idea has evolved into a crowdsourced phenomenon. “I really do think the adaptability and openness of the concept is really what’s behind that kind of community, grassroots leadership that we see,” she said.

There’s a mix of factors that drive the more successful campaigns. The most successful organizations will experiment to find successful strategies - such as collaborating with other groups who might be appealing to the same donor base, Curran said. And for those who are looking to reach beyond the normal pool of funders, a helpful strategy is to embrace storytelling to all audiences, she added.

“An organization has to tell powerful stories about the work it does, but it also has to reach out to the people who share passion for that cause, whether they’re existing donors or not, and ask  them to share their stories,” she said. Curran added that many nonprofits tend to communicate the experiences of their donors and workers, but sharing why people donate can also drive support.

To keep tabs on how everyone’s doing with their initiatives, Curran said Giving Tuesday organizers will be watching donations stream to nonprofits around the world from “Giving Tuesday Command Central,” a “war room” where they monitor social media and check in with leaders of campaigns across the world.

New York is slated to play a larger role in the initiative this year with the launch of NY Gives Day, developed by the New York Council of Nonprofits and the United Way of New York State in an effort to unify donors across the Empire State. They teamed up with GiveGab, a startup fundraising platform, to centralize and streamline donations. As of the start of this week, 634 groups have signed on to use the platform to collect donations for their campaigns and take advantage of resources and fundraising help.

With more than 97,000 registered charities, foundations and other nonprofits across the state bringing in revenues of $179.5 billion annually, New York state has an enormous footprint and holds potential for growth. According to the organization’s survey, last year approximately 69 percent of nonprofits reached or neared their Giving Tuesday fundraising goals. And no matter how much money an organization raises, they’re certain to expose their name to additional eyes taking in the flurry of activity on the day.

“It’s not just about raising money, but it’s a great way to teach nonprofits about ways that they can better utilize new technology to raise money, gain awareness, hopefully gain supporters long term, more than just one transaction,” said GiveGab CEO and Cofounder Charlie Mulligan.

He said that nonprofits still aren’t as adept as their for-profit counterparts at accepting online donations and don’t tap their social networks enough. Other hindrances can include a donation form “that looks like it’s from 1987” and asks for too much information, causing potential donors to give up.

GiveGab and others hope to help. Along with helping nonprofits set up a user-friendly, visually appealing donation page, on Giving Tuesday, GiveGab is waiving their fees – which for the basic plan includes five percent of every donation and credit card fees. Donors can elect to cover the credit card fees for their contributions –  and nearly three-of-four donors do, Mulligan said.

Other technology companies jumping in to help amplify or coordinate Giving Tuesday efforts include donation platform GivKwik which will host a live show in New York City on the evening of Nov. 29 with nonprofits competing to raise $20,000 and Network for Good which is courting nonprofits by offering prizes to those with well-performing campaigns. Tech behemoths Facebook and Apple have also recently expanded their tools to help charities fundraise using their phones or social media networks.

The UN Foundation is embracing both new- and old-school marketing models, featuring a “Give a Gif” campaign, and taking out newspaper ads in the style of circulars. The City University of New York has re-branded the day #CUNYTuesday in hopes of drawing donations for student scholarships and programs, Brooklyn Community Foundation is matching up to $5,000 in donations to each of 20 selected nonprofits and for New York charities with the barest of budgets.

BronxWorks, a nonprofit with a budget of roughly $50 million that offers shelters, homelessness prevention and other services, is holding a $75 per person event at the Hard Rock Cafe at Yankee Stadium on the night of Giving Tuesday. The event, more casual than its annual gala, helps to add an “interactive” element to the excitement that already surrounds the day, while introducing donors to the people behind the organization and its programs that help new Americans and immigrants, said Gianna Dell'Olio, director of advancement and communications.

Dell'Olio said BronxWorks was about two-thirds of the way to its goal of selling 100 tickets to the event and was expecting more sales after Thanksgiving.

While Dell’Olio couldn’t say how effective it was overall, the growth in revenue that the organization saw from 2014 to 2015 was roughly equivalent to the amount raised on last year’s Giving Tuesday.

Sharon Williams, who became executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County in July, said this would be her first time taking part in the campaign. “I just love the energy that it can generate,” she said.

Their Giving Tuesday donation page lists the dollar amounts for various units of programming - from $75 to train volunteers, to $1,200 to pay the annual mentor-mentee cost - to help donors understand the impact their money makes on the other side of the computer screen.

To reach its “audacious” $10,000 goal - nearly 10 percent of its budget - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County will flood its social media outlets with appeals, send emails and encourage staffers and board members to reach out to colleagues about the promotion. “This is really, I think, the epitome of a peer-to-peer campaign that we’re trying to launch,” Williams said.

The campaign is not without its skeptics, some of whom fear that donors will be overwhelmed by one day full of simultaneous appeals or that Giving Tuesday donations will reduce returns from end-of-year appeals. Fundraising consultant Joe Garecht wrote in 2013 that the return on investment for a Giving Tuesday campaign wouldn’t be worth the effort of participating.

“Sure, you may raise some extra money that day by sending out an e-mail, but that’s not the measure of success,” he wrote. “The real measure of success is, if you sent out the same fundraising e-mail at a different time (say, the week after #GivingTuesday), would you raise more or less than if you sent it out on the big day?”

Representatives from the 92Y said data indicated organizations were beginning to embrace the Tuesday as the beginning of their end-of-year appeal season.

“There’s absolutely no data to show that (Giving Tuesday) cannibalizes end-of-year giving and, in fact, the data we do have shows that it raises giving for all of December,” Curran said, pointing to studies that said there was a “halo effect” of increased giving in the days around the promotion. “It certainly does not show that people give less on Dec. 31, it’s not rearranging the deck chairs from all that we can see,” she added.

The average donation among nearly 700,000 people last year was $107, according to a report commissioned by the campaign’s organizers.

Hannah Kim, director of communications for Harlem RBI, a community-based youth development nonprofit in East Harlem and the South Bronx, said it was using the day to launch its year-end appeal. In its campaign, the organization will use Facebook and Twitter ads, personalized direct-mail letters and an email campaign to gain new donors and nudge lapsed donors who haven’t given in recent years, Kim said. A private donor has committed to donate a matching grant of up to $10,000.

She said they noticed some gifts came in earlier last year, but there wasn’t yet enough data to gauge any long-term trends. “I could see it being the case where people would give a little bit earlier because … they see other friends or people that are donating online,” she said.

Kim said that because the promotion is still new, the returns aren’t being dedicated to a particular program. They will instead support Harlem RBI’s foundation as a whole. “I think for us, Giving Tuesday is still very much in its early years where we’re not really depending on this day to provide funding for a program,” she said. “I think it’s more of a way for us to just keep our work going.”