Part of what launched Giving Tuesday to rapid success was a set of key principles inherent in the movement. For example, the decision not to brand it with the originating organization was highly unusual, but it meant that anyone could make Giving Tuesday their own.

That led to an immediate establishment of an environment that thrives on co-creation, peer-learning, and community from day one. Look no further than some of the amazing logos that organizations have created as a result.

“There’s value in getting a lot of people on your mission who aren’t on your payroll. The more you can provide an opportunity for distributed support, for open-source platforms that have your mission at their heart, the more you can tap into the power of the crowd to build the impact you want to have."

Now, individual organizations can’t always let their trademark out into the wild like Giving Tuesday did. But the real learning here is not: “Don’t worry about your logo.” 

The real learning is: “We do better when we work together and when we give people an opportunity to be part of the solution with us.” 

This lesson that Woodrow shares, and countless others, extend well beyond the day of Giving Tuesday. For example, he discusses the importance of creating a sense of urgency to donate.

“Urgency is the most important driver of donation intent: you want to be in on the fun, you have to give on the day. But it’s not a reason to give to your organization. You have to tell a compelling and emotionally driven story of impact to tap into that heightened environment for giving. If you look at it that way, that’s where the best practice is. It’s not just about Giving Tuesday. You can create those moments all year round.”

Woodrow also shares how most people, on Giving Tuesday, tend to take more than one action. Yet, most of the engagements he sees are highly transactional and focused only on the donation. Organizations need to focus on a holistic view of their supporters outside of the donation.  

“I think about commercial marketing. We knew a lot and had a lot of insight into the profile of our customer and a firm understanding that we needed to find multiple ways of engaging what mattered. Our goal was still the same: a sale and behavior change on the purchase. But to get there you need to do more than the straight up transactional relationship.”

This incessant focus on the transaction is related to the scarcity mindset, which has severely limited the social sector. Many organizations feel they’ve hit their giving ceiling, but Woodrow shows us there’s so much room to grow. But, if we act as if we don’t have room, we’ll never break out. 

Giving Tuesday itself is the perfect example of this. Woodrow relays that in its early days, there was an assumption that it couldn’t be additive. The skeptics felt that giving was flat and you couldn’t increase it. All you could do is move the money around, and if someone gives today then, by definition, they give less later. 

The reality is that’s just not true. Some of the earliest work Woodrow did was to examine years of transactional level data to see the statistical impact of Giving Tuesday. It generated a spike, and there was no cannibalization. 

“This trend wouldn’t surprise any commercial marketer. They would never say, ‘I don’t want them to buy today because then they won’t buy tomorrow.’ It just doesn’t work that way.”

Breaking out of the scarcity mindset eliminates fear around being active and trying new things. Woodrow recognizes that Giving Tuesday has begun to change minds around this, but he also notes some fascinating insights from the COVID pandemic. 

Without a doubt, COVID was a huge risk and threat to organizations and people in the sector. But it also provided once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. According to Woodrow, we pay too much attention to the threat from COVID and not enough to that opportunity. 

For example, there was a reversal of the multi-year trend for fewer and fewer givers. We also saw people giving money to small businesses, which wasn’t a category of giving before. Entirely new giving behaviors emerged during the pandemic.  

“We might be able to come out of this challenging, harmful situation with a more resilient, larger pool of donors. That’s only going to be true if we take advantage of the opportunity. When I hear people say, ‘I wonder what the donors are going to do this year?’ my response is, ‘What are you going to motivate them to do?’ We could reverse one of the most damaging trends in the sector over the past decade. But only if we take action to do so.”

There’s another component at play here which is both challenge and opportunity: retention and donor growth have decoupled. Woodrow notes that the norm used to be we only saw donor growth when we had high retention. 

“There’s an assumption when you look at that data prior to 2020 that we can’t grow unless organizations retain. As it turns out, that’s not true, because in 2020 we saw the opposite. Now, we’re in this situation that’s highly uncertain and very challenging for organizations to navigate because it’s so unpredictable. Retention and growth are not linked. But this is also freeing. More elasticity is a good thing. People will give to a lot more causes, and we don’t have to worry so much about competition. If we get active and think about how we’re engaging in inspiring ways, we can raise the floor.”

And that’s where Woodrow’s data work becomes really interesting: he’s taking a deep dive into what the future of generosity looks like and how people give in multiple dimensions. 

He’s beginning to see patterns emerge around thinking about generosity not in terms of, “Did you give you a registered charity?” or “Did you give to this organization?” Instead, he’s trying to provide that much-needed holistic view of the ecosystem. 

Take Mutual Aid Networks, for example. Generally, these are organized, but not incorporated, giving mechanisms. It’s not, “I baked a casserole for my neighbor.” It’s also not, “I went and brought canned goods to the 501c3 that’s running the food bank in my community.” 

But it is, “I joined this network on Facebook that’s organizing a casserole bake for people in need in my community.”‍

“We’re not paying attention to this behavior, we’re not measuring it, and we’re not thinking about how important it is for the fabric of communities. And, because we’re not measuring it or paying attention to it, those people are left out of important conversations around giving. Part of our goal is to enfranchise these existing giving behaviors.” 

So, what does the future of giving look like with this holistic view of donors and their behaviors? For Woodrow, it:

• Is personal

• Gives immediate and frictionless opportunity to take action for good

• Aligns with their values

• Is distributed

• Isn’t branded

• Focuses on the cause

• Doesn’t focus on the operation

“All of these things are possible to tap into as an organization. Organizations that are effectively engaging in these ways are going to increasingly see that they’re getting a better result.”

And while these insights can be applied to your organization any day of the year, Giving Tuesday presents a golden opportunity to try something new. The barrier to entry is low, so do what’s in your capacity and don’t stand in your own way. 

“Don’t miss it. It’s celebratory. It’s fun. Your supporters are going to be out there, primed to give. Engage them. Don’t be afraid of creativity. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Don’t be afraid to collaborate. Be active. That can be as simple as talking about your mission or thanking donors or doing a peer-to-peer campaign and activating fundraisers or getting people to volunteer or giving back yourself. There can be no limit. No campaign is too small.”

This year, Giving Tuesday is November 30, 2021. Check out the main GivingTuesday.org site for free logos and more information. And be sure to check out the free Giving Tuesday Resource Center our friends over at Classy have put together.

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