Giving Tuesday Canceled
Confirming rumors that have been circulating for some time, the organizers of GivingTuesday announced late last night that this year’s event, slated for December 1st, has been canceled.
Knowledgeable sources with close ties to the GivingTuesday Founders Council revealed to The Agitator that a new event — RandomWednesday — would be launched as the replacement.
GivingTuesday was started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season.
However, one insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to comment, told us, “After three years’ experience with GivingTuesday it’s now become quite clear that because the event is held so close to Black Friday and Cyber Monday it truly is interfering with the holiday shopping plans of nonprofit fundraisers and webmasters”.
Support for the old GivingTuesday had by and large been positive, with a large number of organizations, including Google, Microsoft, Skype, Cisco, UNICEF, the Case Foundation, and others joining in as partners.
While some praised Giving Tuesday as an antidote to a consumer culture run wild and as a way for people to give back, others were not as charitable in their view. Critics ranged from Stanford Social Innovation Review to the Financial Access Initiative of New York University to The Agitator’s very own Tom Belford.
Will RandomWednesday boost giving now that GivingTuesday is dead? I sure hope so.
The optimist in me believes it will for a variety of reasons:
- Organizations are now free to organize RandomWednesday, well… randomly. On a schedule that meets their own institutional needs not those of some amorphous clump of holiday-oriented shopppers.
- Fundraising staff and webmasters, no longer conflicted about whether to devote their holiday time to website and creative chores, or concentrate on snagging a Samsung 65” high def tv at the best price, can now relax.
- Best of all, if preparations aren’t quite in order for the RandomWednesday in, say, July, there’s always another in four RandomWednesdays in August … maybe even five.
Are you sad? Or are you celebrating the death of GivingTuesday?
Roger
11 responses to “Giving Tuesday Canceled”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Can you cancel Thanksgiving too? Now that Giving Tuesday has been created and established by so many organizations, will everyone get the Memo? Well, if they’re not in the know and don’t read the Agitator, clearly not. But ask the ALSA people if they were able to cancel the Ice Bucket challenge once it took off? Can you cancel cultural trends?
Fantastic! Now we can get back to the real work. . . every day!
April Fool to you too Roger.
dk
Happy April Fools to you too! (though, I haven’t been the biggest fan of GivingTuesday and other random, made up days)
I’m actually disappointed that this isn’t true. Got my hopes up.
This just in – retention is overrated! “We’re all about the new blood! Paying big bucks to bring in donors who don’t care about our mission and won’t give again has helped us bleed funds from our over-hyped programming and focus on what’s truly important…ensuring big salaries and benefits for our development staff – the people who make it all happen.”
I’m with Janice, Halee,and Bob!
I was talking to a fundraising “guru” just this morning. According to her, it turns out that listening to your donors is just a BIG waste of your time! So, she suggests, if you are forced to call one back or (ugh!) meet face to face, put it off as long as you can and then be sure to tell them about your family finances, medical problems and other personal details to fill the time. (BONUS POINTER: To really make a donor feel an important “insider,” cover every embarrassing or unprofessional misstep by both the board and staff; they’ll love being up to date. Complaining in general about your work and asking if they of any other open positions are other excellent tactics.)
I’m with Jennifer. I recommend that to all my clients.
Also, thank you letters are a complete waste of time. They have money; they ought to give it to us. We’re the ones working so hard, right?
(Joking aside, I’m still pretty unenthused about Giving Tuesday. I like giving every day better.)
Where can I found out more this “Giving Tuesday” thing? Is there a website you can send me to?
I’m *very* interested in finding out more about RandomWednesday. This is very exciting! But did you really need to name a specific day of the week for this? Can’t this event just be random? Clever plays on words announcing new randomly named campaign days at random moments when we need a good laugh? 🙂