The GivingTuesday Data Commons works with partners across sectors and borders to understand the drivers and impacts of generosity, explore giving behaviors and patterns, and use data to inspire more giving around the world. Through our data work, we identify + share innovative practices that can help grow generosity. With hundreds of contributing partners and 50 global data labs, the initiative is the largest philanthropic data collaboration ever built.
We’ve built a global generosity platform that will allow us to grow all types of giving and motivate new givers by:
Head to the GivingLab to find a collection of research, including some of our own, on giving and generosity.
To get involved, email data@givingtuesday.org.
For press inquiries, email media@givingtuesday.org.
Learn more about active projects and access the platform.The GivingTuesday Data Commons’ latest report offers a lookback into worldwide generosity in 2021. In this new report we not only draw on a broad range of data sources to provide a unique window on the state of giving in 2021, but – equally importantly – we lay the foundation for a rethinking of how the social sector understands – and cultivates – generosity.
The project began when we asked US-based giving platforms to share their online donation results for the day of GivingTuesday so we could try to understand how much money was being donated on the day itself. After gathering data on GivingTuesday donations from payment processors, giving platforms, the government (990 data, workplace giving), social media, and nonprofits, it became apparent that with the quantity and diversity of data available, that we could learn much more about giving—the drivers behind it, the behaviors around it, and what might inspire more of it—not just on GivingTuesday, but year round.
The GivingTuesday team created a home for multiple organizations, data scientists, and academics to analyze this data, and build data-informed tools to benefit the broader social sector.
The GivingTuesday Data Commons was launched as a collaborative effort to measure GivingTuesday online donation results and has grown to include data on donation transaction records, crowdfunding campaign components, survey research, and volunteer behavior on every day of the year. Through this collaborative effort, we have conducted analyses to identify the giving patterns of small-scale donors, shifts in repeat donations, the implications of crowdfunding and workplace giving for specific demographics, and giving by gender, among other variables. We have engaged data firms and propelled collaboration in the philanthropic sector.
We have developed a broad coalition of more than 70 collaborators in the US coordinated through eight working groups as well as teams in 50 countries. Our growing collection of data assets cover many different aspects of giving, including 15 years of transaction-level donation data from more than 20,000 nonprofit organizations. To enable this work, we have built a technical infrastructure that allows access to data assets, shared methodology and code, and a database of research insights and findings.
The work of the collaborators is guided through working groups convened around a variety of specific giving topics and interest areas: crowdfunding, impact measurement, workplace giving, donor advised funds, fintech, charities, and academic researchers.
Heinz Family Foundation
Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros
Laurence and Carolyn Belfer
MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett
Walker Family Foundation
