Giving Compass' Take:

· Ben Paynter at Fast Company reports that a combined, record-breaking total of $380 million was donated to nonprofit groups on Giving Tuesday, $80 million more than last year. 

· What has led to the increasing amount of donations? How can the impact of these donations be maximized? 

· Learn how Giving Tuesday became a worldwide phenomenon. 

People contributed a combined $380 million to nonprofit groups on Giving Tuesday, the international day for donating. That’s 27% more than last year’s total of $300 million, according to 92Y, the community nonprofit that founded the event in 2012. The total number of individual gifts given also rose 80% from 2 million in 2017 to 3.6 million this year.
“We are absolutely seeing a democratization of giving,” says Asha Curran, chief innovation officer at the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92Y in an email to Fast Company. “#GivingTuesday is about the participation of the many rather than the power of the few. It’s fueled by many, many smaller actions–both in dollars, in kind, and in kindness–that add up to big impact.”

The increase in number of gifts does mean that the amount per gift dropped somewhat this year. It was $105 per donation this year, compared to $120 the year before. An increase in people giving small amounts runs counter to the narrative of what’s happening in American philanthropy, which in recent years has been controlled by a small corps of super-rich donors giving more while the majority of Americans donate less. That leaves average people with little say in what causes are being funded.

Read the full article about Giving Tuesday by Ben Paynter at Fast Company.