Stocktoberfest Insights with Giving Tuesday

Check out our Q&A with Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer, with Giving Tuesday. Woodrow has been instrumental in shaping the GivingTuesday movement globally and led groundbreaking research and analysis of individual giving behaviors. Founder of With Intent, an international consumer marketing agency, Woodrow has a long history of building top consumer brands. Woodrow is working with stakeholders around the world, using his experience motivating consumers to evaluate donor behaviors and uncover the levers for increased individual giving.

DonateStock: Most are aware of the Giving Tuesday event, but not everyone knows about the organization behind it. Tell us about the org and your mission to make giving more central in daily life?

Woodrow: GivingTuesday is a year-round movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world. We collaborate with our global network to celebrate and inspire generosity and to build capacity for the individuals, organizations, and movements that are building thriving communities.

DonateStock: Based on your research, what are the top 3 challenges facing nonprofits today?

Woodrow: Right now, I think the key challenges are: Unpredictability – we’re all feeling it. How do we plan when things are changing so rapidly and old models aren’t working? This relates to the second challenge, which is lack of agility. The sector wasn’t broadly prepared for the disruptions of 2020 and had no margin of error to work with. Finally, increased demand on many organizations has them operating near, or at the breaking point.

DonateStock: In what ways has the Pandemic impacted nonprofits? (what key insights have come from your research?)

Woodrow: We saw three major trends emerge in 2020:

1. Donor mobility – people switched up the organizations they were supporting, resulting in a lot of movement in the donor landscape. Donor acquisition by organizations was up, as was the number of donors. At the same time, retention was down. Overall this was good news. There were more donors overall and more dollars donated in the U.S. However, it makes it very challenging for organizations to adjust. Capacity (and willingness) to be active and creative were key to capitalizing on this as an opportunity and mitigate the risk.
2. Market volatility – There was a large discrepancy between the overall result for the sector and the typical experience of organizations. In this case, a rising tide did not lift all boats. Many factors contributed to these uneven results, but the bottom line was that while average results were up compared to 2019, most organizations saw contraction.
3. Giving moments drive participation – We saw this in relation to the events of 2020 and the concerns that emerged throughout the year. Giving to cause areas related to key moments would rise and then recede. We saw this in relation to the pandemic’s impact, racial and social justice, and on GivingTuesday. These giving moments were strong drivers of donor acquisition.

DonateStock: How are fundraising efforts evolving and where do you see new possibilities for innovation?

I hope that the nonprofit sector is emerging from 2020 with new skills and more agility. The pandemic forced a lot of adoption of new methods and approaches. Although this was clearly challenging for many organizations, it has the potential to drive resilience. Organizations can take this opportunity to use hybrid in-person and virtual mechanisms, for example and we saw a shift away from transactional engagement which should be a best practice.

2020 also inspired a great deal of generous action by individuals and groups coming together to help in their communities. Mutual aid networks, and other unincorporated organizing mechanisms have always been an important way for people in many communities to support each other. We seem to be seeing a surge in this activity and the adoption of digital tools to amplify them. There’s a big opportunity to activate people’s generosity with these networks and I think they’re going to be an increasingly important component of the giving ecosystem.

DonateStock: What else would you like the audience to know?

Woodrow: I think a lot of people in the social sector are feeling worn down. It’s important to remember that people are highly motivated to give right now. We have an opportunity to realize a positive legacy of the crises we are weathering by nurturing and inspiring the donors that were acquired in the past year, by re-engaging the lapsed donors who still care about our missions, by embracing and celebrating all the ways people give, and by engaging the communities that are coming together to make a difference and empowering them.

If we can do that this year, we could come out of 2021 with more givers who are more engaged with our missions and with more skills and flexibility than we came in with.