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StoriesEvents GivingEveryTuesday

Using Data to Power a More Generous World

The GivingTuesday Data Commons provides to the social sector what the commercial sector has long benefitted from: big data to drive better decision-making, build a more resilient social sector, and accelerate equitable social innovation.

Data Commons works with partners across sectors and borders to:

  • understand the drivers and impacts of all types of generosity, 
  • analyze the effects of networks and collective action,
  • explore giving behaviors and patterns, 
  • and use data to inspire more giving around the world. 

With hundreds of collaborators and 50 global data labs, the Data Commons has collected the most comprehensive datasets in the social sector and is the only initiative focused on collecting and analyzing individual giving behavior of all types.

What We’re Learning

GivingPulse

GivingPulse is a weekly survey designed to investigate a broad range of giving behaviors and sentiments that can help us gather insights to grow more generosity.

Introduction to the Project
Check out the Insights

Fundraising Effectiveness Project

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) is a collaboration among fundraising data providers, researchers, analysts, associations, and consultants to empower the sector to track and evaluate trends in giving. Analyzed quarterly by the GivingTuesday Data Commons, this project offers one of the only views of the current year’s fundraising data in aggregate to provide the most recent trends for guiding nonprofit fundraising and donor engagement.

Q3 2023 Executive Summary
Access the Online Dashboard

Rethinking Resilience: Insights from the Giving Ecosystem

In this report, we present a holistic view of global giving in 2022, reflecting the full breadth of the Data Commons’ initiatives, partnerships, data, and analysis. We have mapped a wide variety of giving behavior metrics across global regions and communities, including the USA, India, Brazil, Kenya, the UK, and other countries. This year’s report also offers a window into the many ways that giving cultures vary from region to region.

Read the Lookback Report

Resource Exchange

The GivingTuesday Resource Exchange is a global, collaborative, comprehensive, and continuously updated library of resources on generosity and philanthropy. The Resource Exchange empowers social sector leaders and researchers to learn from and be inspired by research, insights, stories, and resources from peers in the sector. It’s your go-to spot for staying informed about and inspired by generosity in all its forms!

Access the Resource Exchange
Latest Projects
Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP)

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) offers one of the only views of current fundraising data in aggregate to provide the most recent trends on the philanthropic ecosystem.

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990 Data Infrastructure

Through the 990 Data Infrastructure project, we will build and maintain a centralized platform that will democratize access to raw, clean, and standardized IRS charity data.

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Insights to Action (I2A)

The Insights to Action Toolkit project will generate actionable insights to help organizations improve their key metrics such as donor engagement, funds raised, hours volunteered, items donated, etc.

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GivingPulse

GivingPulse is a weekly survey designed to investigate a broad range of giving behaviors and sentiments, supported by Fidelity Charitable.

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Global Omnibus Survey

The Global Omnibus Survey profiles the giving behaviors of typical donors from different countries. This survey is a modified version of both GivingPulse and US Annual Giving questionnaires.

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US Giving Survey

The annual US Giving Survey measures the giving behaviors, mechanisms, approaches, and sentiments found in a representative American population.

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Donor Advised Fund (DAF) Project

An effort to contribute to an increased public understanding of donor advised funds (DAFs). By collecting accurate data and producing empirically-based reports, the new 2023 National Study on Donor Advised Funds will be the most comprehensive research project on DAFs to date.

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Humanitas

Even the most basic fields in public nonprofit sector data tend to be inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date. GivingTuesday and Humanitas are working together to build a comprehensive, validated source of basic information for all the nonprofit entities in the US

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Growing Generosity in Florida

The Growing Generosity in Florida report provides actionable insights for nonprofits, donors, and policymakers about the dynamics of individual givers across Florida.

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Get Involved in Data Commons

Working Groups

GivingTuesday’s Data Commons Working Groups create a shared approach to research and an opportunity for giving platforms, researchers, academics, data scientists, and practitioners to collaborate on the following research themes:

 

A person holding a phone and looking a social media.Crowdfunding + Online Giving

This Working Group focuses on online giving, fundraiser and donor behavior, product innovations, customer and partner insights, and specific data science methodologies to uncover key motivators for how and why people contribute to crowdfunding campaigns and to uncover trends in online giving. 

 

Harrahs Casino employees wearing purple shirts and posing with open arms on a beach that they've just cleaned up on GivingTuesdayWorkplace Giving

Supported by Schwab Charitable, the Workplace Giving Working Group brings together leaders from a wide range of organizations seeking to bring more generosity into the workplace. Members of this group convene to identify methods for amplifying the effect of workplace giving campaigns, providing more agency to employees in the giving process, and ultimately creating better outcomes for beneficiaries, employees, and employers alike.

 

Brazilian women wearing masks and standing in front of stacks of boxes: goods they've collected for covid preventionImpact Measurement

This working group was formed to discuss one of the most fundamental questions of the nonprofit and philanthropy sector: how can we re-examine the role of impact measurement to ensure it serves beneficiaries and enables service providers to work more effectively? The group looks at impact measurement challenges from all angles, including capacity issues, equity, disconnects between funders and service providers, and incentives to compete rather than cooperate.

A man in a yellow safety vest carrying boxesCrisis + Generosity

This working group explores how generosity can be mobilized during times of crisis and how responses from civil society can be resourceful and creative. Specifically, the group is interested in how to rapidly identify needs on the ground and the networks and players best equipped to respond at the outset of a crisis, the kind of data infrastructure needed to understand these networks, and how predictive technology can produce the data needed to get ahead of crises.

 

a woman with a data overlay on top of her insinuating that she's a tech practitionerGenerosity AI

The Generosity AI Working Group is a cross-sector collaboration between practitioners in tech, academics, and the social sector who are exploring ways that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to advance missions and grow generosity at scale. This working group will explore the role of knowledge-sharing platforms, learning networks, and communities of practice in accelerating AI adoption for social good. It will also identify strategies to address issues related to resource constraints, governance, data sharing, and equity in collaborative AI projects. Sign up to participate in this working group here. 

 

For more information or to join a working group, please contact Kelsey Kramer.

Research Agenda

The GivingTuesday Data Commons investigates the nature of generosity globally using quantitative and qualitative methods. Our mission is to generate insights and new knowledge that can help create a more effective and evidence-driven social sector, capable of meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. 

With partners from across the sector, we help address the urgent need for data-based insights to support social sector organizations around the world. We also work to convene partners to address new issues and trends as they emerge and become relevant to the sector’s practices. 

Within the GivingTuesday Data Commons and with the engagement of the GivingTuesday movement, we leverage our data, findings, collaborative research, and networks to create communities of learning and practice. These communities allow researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to work together to identify opportunities and test hypotheses to better understand the generosity ecosystem worldwide. 

Our Research Priorities

Strengthening Resource Mobilization

Strengthen fundraising practices and supporter engagement by measuring, describing, and facilitating the application of successful practices through studies of fundraising data, donor trends, and other relevant datasets, as well as what we can learn from experimentation with new technologies that are impacting the sector.

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Capturing Dimensions of Generosity

Understand, articulate, and investigate the full spectrum of generosity by studying the intersectionalities of the generosity ecosystem beyond the scope of monetary donations. This includes studying the drivers and influencers of giving as well as understanding and classifying the generosity ecosystem.

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Understanding the GivingTuesday Distributed Model

Characterize and model the GivingTuesday distributed movement by deriving insights from the accomplishments and learnings of its network of leaders. Here we explore the broader application of GivingTuesday’s insights on peer-learning communities and proximate leadership practices to inform new ways of working towards change.

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“Thanks to the Data Commons, we are getting real-time insights on donor behavior that have the potential to transform philanthropy and drive much-needed resources to organizations on the front lines of the world’s biggest challenges.”

- Agus Galmarini, program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“The Data Commons is an exciting development for the nonprofit sector. It serves as critical infrastructure for practitioners, policymakers and researchers to better understand social sector data. I'm especially excited about the Data Commons Research Hubs, which have potential to inform the development and evaluation of effective social sector strategies. Ultimately, I think this open platform will enable us all to work together more effectively in learning to build stronger and more resilient communities.”

- Allison Grayson, Director, Policy Development and Analysis, Independent Sector; University of Maryland

“The work that GivingTuesday has put into modernizing the ways that data can be securely analyzed at scale is one of the unsung watershed moments of not-for-profit technology in the last 25 years. Not only has this helped provide clear business benefits to individual data providers like [our company], but also demonstrates a shining example of how we should be doing this as an entire sector.”

- Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand, NeonOne

Leadership Supporter

This work is generously supported by

Additional generous support provided by

Laurence and Carolyn Belfer
Heinz Family Foundation
Hilary Pennington
Rob Reich
Drs. Gail and Leonard Saltz
MacKenzie Scott
Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros
Walker Family Foundation

Research Partners

Platform Partners