US donors gave $3.6 billion on Tuesday, the most in two years, according to estimates from the nonprofit GivingTuesday.
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, now known as GivingTuesday, has become a key day for nonprofits to raise funds and otherwise engage their supporters each year since the 92nd Street Y in New York launched it as a hashtag in 2012. GivingTuesday has since become an independent non-profit organization. brings together a worldwide network of leaders and organizations promoting giving back to their communities.
“It really shows the generosity of American citizens, especially the willingness to show up collectively,” said Asha Curran, CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday. “We’re just seeing the power of collective action, and especially the power of collective giving over and over again.”
The amount donated this year represents a 16% increase over 2023, or an 11.9% increase when adjusted for inflation.
According to GivingTuesday estimates, nearly 18.5 million people donated to nonprofits this year, and another 9.2 million volunteered. 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. “It’s about the number of people who feel they have agency over the way their community moves forward.”
The nonprofit organization 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 were purposefully conservative in their calculations.
US nonprofits raised $3.1 billion on GivingTuesday in both 2022 and 2023. This reflected larger donation trends, where total donations declined in 2022 and remained largely flat in 2023 after adjusting for inflation.
Current giving trends are never easy to predict, but Una Osili, associate dean of Indiana University’s Lilly School of Family Philanthropy, said there are economic forces in both directions.
“At the same time, there’s a lot of uncertainty, particularly around prices, the cost of living, supermarket payments, which people expect will continue even if inflation is easing,” he said.
Donating to nonprofits or volunteering isn’t the only way people can get involved in their communities. Many support crowdfunding campaigns, political causes, or people directly in their networks. But tracking charitable giving is one way researchers use to understand people’s civic engagement.
“This country is certainly in a lot of pain and is very divided right now,” Curran said. “So to have a day that felt hopeful and optimistic like yesterday was comforting, I’m sure, not just for me, but for many, many millions of people.”
— Thalia Beatty, Associated Press
Associated Press reporting on philanthropy and nonprofit organizations is supported through AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.