Canada’s first annual GivingTuesday increased charitable donations in Canada by 169% over the same Tuesday of last year, according to new data from CanadaHelps. 

The global GivingTuesday movement, which encourages people to give back in any way they can was initiated in Canada by CanadaHelps and the GIV3 Foundation. 

Generous response proves GivingTuesday’s impact 

“CanadaHelps was pleased to be one of 15 founding partners in Canada in what has now become a global movement,” said CEO Marina Glogovac. “We were joined by more than 1300 other partners in celebrating this new day of giving.” 

What happens when that many charities and businesses come together in a collective, grass roots effort to launch engaging campaigns that promote giving back on the same day? CanadaHelps’ data shows that Canadians respond generously. 

• The number of charitable donations via CanadaHelps increased by 169% over the same Tuesday last year, and the total dollar value of donations increased by 91%. 
• Charities who joined and actively promoted GivingTuesday enjoyed the greatest lift in donations. These charities saw an overall increase of 225% in number of donations received through CanadaHelps and 153% in the dollar value of donations.
• First-time CanadaHelps donors made over 77% of donations, an indication of the power of GivingTuesday to engage new donors into charitable giving.
• Responding to a special GivingTuesday offer from the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, 31 charities are running GivingTuesday text-to-donate campaigns until the end of December. These campaigns have already shown a 203% increase in text donations over 2012. A list of all the GivingTuesday mobile campaigns can be found at MobileGiving.ca.
• CanadaHelps Charity Gift Cards donations increased by 650% on GivingTuesday. With a Charity Gift Card, the sender chooses the value and the recipient chooses the charity the gift supports.
• Hundreds of local and national media outlets, small and large, as well as politicians, celebrities and charitable sector advocates participated by offering extensive coverage in support of the day.
• Social media was (and continues to be) full of GivingTuesday stories. At the peak of activity on December 3rd, the #GivingTuesdayCa hashtag was trending in second place.

For more information, Shannon Craig, Director of Donor Engagement, CanadaHelps, 416-628-6948 ext. 2390, or by email.