U.S. donors gave $3.6 billion on GivingTuesday 2024, an increase from the past two years, according to estimates from the nonprofit GivingTuesday.

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, now known as GivingTuesday, has become a major day for nonprofits to fundraise and otherwise engage their supporters each year, since the 92nd St Y in New York started it as a hashtag in 2012. GivingTuesday has since become an independent nonprofit that connects a worldwide network of leaders and organizations who promote giving in their communities.

“This just really shows the generosity, the willingness of American citizens to show up, particularly collectively,” said Asha Curran, CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday regarding GivingTuesday 2024. “We are just seeing the power of collective action and particularly collective giving over and over and over again.”

The amount donated on GivingTuesday 2024 represents a 16% increase compared to 2023, or an 11.9% increase when adjusted for inflation.

This year, about 18.5 million people donated to nonprofits and another 9.2 million people volunteered, according to GivingTuesday’s 2024 estimates. Both the number of donors and the number of volunteers increased by 4% from the group’s 2023 estimates.

“For us, it’s not just about the number of dollars,” Curran said regarding GivingTuesday 2024. “It’s about the number of people who feel like they have agency over the way their communities progress forward into the future.”

The nonprofit GivingTuesday estimates the amount of money and goods donated and the number of participants using data from donor management software companies, donation platforms, payment processors, and donor-advised funds. Curran said they are purposely conservative in their calculations.

Nonprofits in the U.S. raised $3.1 billion in both 2022 and 2023 on GivingTuesday 2024. That mirrored larger giving trends where the overall amount of donations dropped in 2022 and mostly held steady in 2023 after accounting for inflation.

It’s never easy to predict current giving trends, but Una Osili, associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, said there were economic forces pushing in both directions.

Read the full article about GivingTuesday 2024 by Thalia Beaty at The Associated Press.