This year's Giving Tuesday raised $45.7 million for causes and charities, up 63 percent from last year, according to estimates released by the Case Foundation.
The grassroots fundraising event, started three years ago by the 92nd Street Y in New York and the United Nations Foundation, was created as a charitable response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday and has grown exponentially each year—last year it raised $28 million compared to $13 million in 2012, its first year.
While Cyber Monday and Black Friday act as a "measure of our nation's economic health," measuring donations from Giving Tuesday "serves as a gauge of our nation's philanthropic health," the Case Foundation said in a statement.
The movement, which started in the U.S., spread to 65 countries this year and drew recognition from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, who said that it is a reminder that Christmas is "a moment to think of others and to encourage giving."
Giving Tuesday also got a shout-out from the White House, in which President Barack Obama said the event is "energized by a common impulse to make life better, especially for those in need."
The event has largely been driven by social media and received 32.7 million Twitter impressions and 698,600 hashtag mentions. Big-name philanthropy and celebrities alike got involved.
An anonymous donor matched every donation on Tuesday to Save the Children, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation doubled every donation to Shot@Life, which provides vaccines to children. The NFL supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for the campaign.
Actress Carey Mulligan gave to War Child, a nonprofit that supports children in war-torn areas, and posted an "unselfie"—a self portrait with a sign sporting the name of a cause—on Twitter. Heidi Klum did the same for the Red Cross, Ellen Degeneres tweeted her donation to the American Cancer Society, and comedian Aziz Ansari supported Oxfam.
Una Osili, director of research at Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, told the Associated Press that so far, there is no evidence that Giving Tuesday changes behavior in terms of people giving less during the rest of the year, and the average amount per donation rose slightly over last year.
Sheila Herrling of the Case Foundation, which supported the results research, told the AP that the numbers indicate the trend is growing into a "tradition."
"It feels like it's here to stay," she said. "It feels like it's this wonderful match to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which inspires this frenzy of buying. It's a really nice match in that it inspires a frenzy of giving."
Email: laneanderson@deseretnews.com
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