A Digital Treatise on #GivingTuesday

We’ve always considered giving to be something you do every single day, not once a year. Give once a year? Eh. Give every Tuesday? That’s a habit worth repeating.

Besides—who goes around waiting until National Margarita Day to enjoy that sugary-tangy beverage of sheer delight? Absolutely no person. Ever. Especially not in Houston.

Look, the truth is, when you care about changing the way things are/giving back/making a difference/doing your part, there’s really no way to measure how much giving is enough. 

Last year I talked about how to get the most out of Giving Tuesday in a noisy world where everyone is asking for dollars. We talked about how charity: water shared out every challenge and victory throughout the year so that, by the time they got around to Giving Tuesday, they had something powerful to say about their collective impact. And, because of that, they were able to inspire new individuals to get in on a cause that’s clearly making waves. In other words, it was one more gentle push to convert donors who were cultivated year-round to consider becoming part of something big. 

This is all still VERY MUCH TRUE and we stand by it. 

But a lot can happen in just one year, especially when our digital frontier continues to have new horizons. Here’s something you should know: Facebook’s fundraising tool is making Giving Tuesday engagement so much more inventive.

Say what you will about this platform that gives us real anxiety about what our relatives may think of our politics and, hell, politics in general, but it’s leading the way when it comes to creating technologies that make giving easier—raising more than $125 million last year by partnering with Paypal to match up to $7 million—the most in history to have ever been raised on a social media platform.

While most of your annual fund might not come through Facebook on Giving Tuesday, 18 percent of donors worldwide have given through Facebook fundraising and that’s a significant enough number to pay attention to. If nothing else, it’s a way to make sure you’re staying connected with your advocates and getting visibility alongside your peers. 

To build on that, here are three quick things happening now that I think you should be taking note of:

#1 Facebook is adding donate stickers to the Stories feature (just like little sis Instagram already did).

If you’re out at an event and you’ve just live-streamed a powerful speech from someone in your community about the work you do, you can add a sticker to your upload and someone who is deeply moved while sitting on their couch eating popcorn can donate right then and there.

#2 Gamers can game for a cause—live on Facebook.

Maybe you’ve heard of professional video gamers like 27-year old Ninja Blevins who went from fast food to fast cash in the sum of $1 million per month. In any case, popular gamers can now decide to add the donate feature to their streams, leveling up their impact with a charity progress bar.

#3 There are more nonprofit features on the way—including one for volunteers.

Soon nonprofits will be able to raise money directly through Instagram with a business profile ‘Donate’ button. Facebook is also testing a feature that will let organizations actively find volunteers. This is excellent news for nonprofits who don’t always have the bandwidth to design their convenient digital tools for their advocate base.

Giving Tuesday is growing year after year, bringing in $389 million last year. It’s important to know about it, but not to assume it’s a magic ball that doesn’t require any work. 

Our argument still holds—Giving Tuesday should never be a one-day transaction. It’s a long-term relationship. A day-after-day, month-after-month rally cry that ensures people see the need that’s right in front of them. 

Because, in the noise of today, what’s right in front of you are humans—hungry for change.