Sector Trends

The Most Charitable Time of the Year

November 30, 2010 | 2 min Read

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, the same US consumers clamoring for the best deal on a flat-screen TV or iPad say they will give an estimated $48 billion to charity during the last two months of the year according to a survey conducted by Edge Research for Convio.

By and large, Americans say they will give more dollars through more channels this holiday season. This year’s survey is slightly different from years past taking a wider angle beyond just online donors. The results include insights into all of the different channels donors use, their average total gifts across multiple channels, their motivations for giving and generational differences in giving. Here’s the data in a nutshell:

  • Seventy-four percent (74 percent) of adults plan to give this holiday season. With average total gifts of $281, the anticipated amount raised by nonprofit organizations will be more than $48 billion.
  • Giving is profoundly multichannel—7 in 10 donors will give in multiple ways such as direct through the mail, online through websites, at events, or as they leave stores after holiday shopping.  Donors who give online are particularly generous, donating a total of approximately $13.7 billion through all channels with more than $6 billion being given online. Not to be ignored are the non-traditional forms of giving—tipping, third party purchases and purchases from charity gift shops.
  • Holiday giving is emotional—donors say that appeals, which put a face to the donation (either human or animal), and remind donors to help those who are less fortunate at this time of year, are most persuasive.
  • Holiday giving is particularly effective with harder-to-reach Generations X and Y, as large percentages of these groups intend to give and give generously—83 percent of Gen Y plan to give, while 79 percent of Gen X say they will give. Gen X plans to give $348 in total this holiday season, more than any other generation.

Have an exciting year-end/holiday campaign? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Blackbaud Staff

Blackbaud Staff

Blackbaud staff contributed this article.

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