More than $2 billion raised during Giving Tuesday 2020
Person holding phone, which has a screen prompting the person to donate. tete_escape / Shutterstock
Giving Tuesday, the annual day aimed at promoting charitable giving after Thanksgiving, helped spur about $2.47 billion in donations this year, Philanthropy News Digest reports.
That’s a 25% increase from the $1.97 billion raised in 2019, according to data from the event’s organizers and giving platforms. This ninth annual Giving Tuesday saw a spike in the number of participants, with nearly 39 million people donating.
“This groundswell of giving reaffirms that generosity is universal and powerful, and that it acts as an antidote to fear, division, and isolation,” Asha Curran, co-founder and CEO of the organization GivingTuesday, said in a statement. “Throughout this year, we have seen people driving extraordinary efforts rooted in a pursuit of equity, community, and shared humanity – driving giving and action across all races, faiths and political views.”
This comes after GivingTuesday launched a similar initiative in May called #GivingTuesdayNow to spur donations to nonprofits struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. That effort resulted in more than $503 million in online donations.
Overall, charitable giving increased by about 7.5% in the first six months of 2020, according to an October report from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project.