christmas giving insights

ChristmasGiving Insights

2021: Making Christmas even more appealing

Christmas donor trends 2021: Making Christmas more appealing

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Introduction

Christmas appeals and campaigns are a critical part of the year for most charities.

Judging when to release campaigns and what times of the day are most appealing to

the public is challenging at the best of times. The impact of the pandemic has made this

even harder as the public’s giving habits have been shifting as lockdowns, working from

home and then the easing of restrictions have all changed the ways people behave.

To help charities get the most from their campaigns, we have looked at our own

collated data from the last two years to explore which days could potentially be the

best for online donations and what times of day people are most likely to donate

during the Christmas period.

We looked at our data from the last two years to help uncover behaviour changes and

have particularly focused on the Christmas period from November through to January

to find out when donations start to rise and tail off. From our data it is clear that

charities should be focusing on December as their key month, as both November and

January follow fairly regular giving patterns that we would expect to see most of the

year round.


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If donations were split equally across the month, there would be an average of 3.2%

made each day. Christmas 2019 saw a steady increase during the month peaking on

the 23rd and 24th December, followed by a significant drop off from Christmas Day till

the end of the year. The pattern of giving in 2020 was slightly different, and despite

tiered lockdowns happening in different parts of the country - there was much more

consistent giving throughout the month. And although there were still peaks, the

difference between the first few days of the month and Christmas Eve were much less

marked.

In 2019, Christmas Eve saw 7% of all December donations whereas in 2020, this figure was only

4.6%. This shows how much smoother donations were throughout the month compared to 2019.

This may be because more people were working from home throughout December and there

were still numerous restrictions in place limiting the number of leisure activities people could

take part in. With some having more disposable income to donate, the public may have tended

towards giving earlier. As we return to more normal circumstances around this festive period, it’s

possible that habits may fall back to more like 2019.

December in summary


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December in summary

Figure 1: Donations per day from 2019 and 2020

Donations per day


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Giving Tuesday is a well established part of the US holiday season, linked together with

Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Last year in the US it grew 25% from 2019 and saw a

total of $2.47 billion donated. In the UK, it took place on December 1st and raised £20.2

million - an increase of 43% from 2019. This increase can also be seen in our data which

saw an uplift in donations on Giving Tuesday.

Looking at the first week of December (Tuesday 1st - Sunday 6th), there was an average

of 3.2% of the month’s donations made every day - the same as the average for the whole

of the month. Giving Tuesday stands out in the week with just under 4.2% of donations for

December made on that day. In 2019 this figure was 3.7% so there is a clear jump year on

year as well as in comparison with the rest of the month.

For charities considering getting involved in Giving Tuesday, it is worth noting its growth

and its growing focus in the UK as the start of the traditional giving season. It takes place

on November 30th this year, which could work well as it’s the last day of the month and

pay day for many people. Its impact is very much focused on the day itself, so charities

should anchor activity on the 30th rather than looking to drive donations before or after.

Giving Tuesday

Figure 2: Percentage of daily donations in first week of December

% of donations

https://www.givingtuesday.org/blog/after-year-of-global-crisis-millions-respond-with-massive-swell-of-generosity-and-shared-humanity-on-givingtuesday-2020/

https://www.givingtuesday.org/blog/after-year-of-global-crisis-millions-respond-with-massive-swell-of-generosity-and-shared-humanity-on-givingtuesday-2020/


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Weekdays are far more popular for donations than weekends. While this pattern

happens all year round, it makes a far more substantial difference in a key donation

month like December. Although most of last December was not a full lockdown, there

were still many more restrictions than are likely to be in place this year. This means the

weekends will see more focus on shopping, catching up with friends and families and

less time for getting involved with charities.

In 2019, without any Covid restrictions, weekends saw an average of 2.5% of monthly

donations, whereas weekdays were 1% higher at 3.5% of monthly donations each day. In

2020, with some Covid restrictions in place, this gap narrowed a little with 2.6% of monthly

donations on the weekend and 3.3% on weekdays. In general terms, as shown in Figure

3, the number of donations rises during the week with Friday seeing the most generous

giving, with Saturday the least.

Figure 3: Percentage of donations made each day of December 2020

% of donations per day

End of the week donating peak


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End of the week donating peak

In 2019, the pattern of giving during December increased each week to a peak on

Christmas Eve, followed by a sharp drop from Christmas Day onwards. For 2020, as can

be seen in Figure 4, there was a different pattern with a much more consistent amount of

donations each week, and the peak period for giving coming in weeks two and three - a

week earlier than 2019. The more consistent giving pattern seen in 2020 may see changes

this year though with a more normal Christmas period expected. This means the peak

week for donating is likely to shift forward again. A sensible approach would see a focus on

week three for driving donations through paid media and campaigns. Week three has seen

high levels of giving in both of the last two years, though it is worth considering that this

is also likely to be the most competitive period. Having looked at the best days and weeks

for donating, we will now explore the best times of the day for fundraising marketing.

Figure 4: Average number of donations made each week of December (2020 and 2019)

Average % of donations each week


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Restrictions, such as working from home, changed the dynamics of the times of day

people donated. There were marked differences between peaks in the times of the day

people donated from December 2019 to September 2020. There was a general shift

to giving earlier and some clear spikes in popular hours to donate. This year looking

at December 2020 and September 2021 there is much more consistency between the

hours that people donate, as shown in Figure 5.

Looking at the figures for December 2020, while no single hour stood out, there was a

clearly favoured period for donating between 10.00-13.00. Across the month, these 3 hours

accounted for 21.4% of donations being made during a 24 hour period. The same time

period was also the peak for Christmas Eve 2020 with 22.3% of that day’s donations made

then. Giving Tuesday 2020 had a slightly later peak with 11.00-14.00 being the strongest

period with 21.2% of the day’s donations made then.

Last December’s figures are important to consider when thinking about the hours to push

campaigns and paid media. However, it is also worth looking at more recent months to

understand how changes in Covid restrictions and the return to offices is impacting on

donation patterns. Looking at August-September this year, there are two peak three hour

periods for donations. Firstly 8.00-11.00, which accounts for 20.7% of daily donations, and

secondly 18.00-21.00, which accounts for 20.6% of daily donations. The shift in hours from

December seems likely to be down to people returning to the office and commuting once

again, with people more likely to donate at the start and end of their working day.

Is there a golden hour for donations?


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Is there a golden hour for donations?

Figure 5: Peak donation hours for December, Giving Tuesday, Christmas Eve and August-September

Peak donation hours


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Platforms

When thinking about Christmas appeals it’s important to consider how you can best

help your supporters by providing them with templates for the platforms they use to

promote their fundraising. Our quarterly donor research, Donor Pulse, has shown that

Facebook is the clear leader amongst all age groups, with 52% saying they would share

on the platform to try and raise funds (Figure 6). For all age groups this is more than

twice as much as its nearest competition - Instagram and WhatsApp, both at 25%.

However, this gap is closed significantly for younger age groups. While 67% of Gen Z

would use Facebook, 57% would use Instagram and 39% would use TikTok. For millennials,

again Facebook leads with 65%, with Instagram on 43% and WhatsApp in third place on

40%.

Unsurprisingly social platforms are most popular with younger age groups and once past

age 55, nearly half (47%) would not share their fundraising on social media. Surprisingly,

amongst all age groups, neither Twitter or email performed well - with just 14% saying they

would use either of these to share their fundraising efforts.

So when charities are considering their fundraising packs for Christmas campaigns,

they need to be thinking more about how to help their supporters spread the word on

Instagram and TikTok rather than Twitter and email.

Figure 6: Social networks used to share fundraising


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Conclusion

The last 18 months have been anything but normal so there is a lot to consider when

looking at this data. There have been numerous different restrictions in place at

different times which have impacted the peak periods for donations. But this appears

to be settling now as people go back to their offices, and to an extent a return to more

normal timings for donations can be seen appearing.

The first thing to consider is that Giving Tuesday is growing and starting to establish

itself as the start of the Christmas giving period as it has done in the US. If your charity is

involved in this, the focus is purely on the day - November 30th this year - and the peak

time last year was slightly later than other days in December. This may be down to early

activity in the US on the day making it trend on social media from around 11am, so an

approach that takes this into account is the best route.

When thinking about wider Christmas campaign planning - think about the different weeks

to focus on first. The first two weeks of December should be used to build awareness

of your activities and appeals through a variety of content and media. While Facebook

is popular for spreading awareness of fundraising, there is plenty of activity on other

platforms with Instagram and TikTok very popular with younger age groups, so think about

experimenting with different platforms.

Week three of December has been a peak donation period for the last two years, so

consider using this as a focus week, before the public gets too busy with the festive

season. This is particularly important this year when people are likely to spend more time

with friends and family after the tight restrictions of 2020.

Focusing on the elements of the campaign looking for donations mid-December will create

the best opportunities to fundraise. It’s also worth planning for a final push in the last few

days before Christmas when pay day has taken place, as the 20-24th December are always

traditionally big donation days, whereas from the 25th onwards, donations drop rapidly.

Though do bear in mind if you are using paid media that the 20-24th December will be

highly competitive, so consider this when planning.

When looking at the days of the week to focus efforts around - the optimal times to push

your Christmas appeal messages are towards the end of the week, and avoid weekends.

There may be less competition for donors earlier in the week, but the generosity of donors

is far higher on Thursday and Friday than the rest of the week.


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Conclusion

The hours of the day to consider for targeted ads, organic posts and email marketing are

not as clear cut. While December traditionally has been late morning, there has been a

shift earlier as more normal work patterns return, so it is worth thinking about whether

your supporters and donors are likely to be back in the office before planning your

spend. Testing and learning during the month to find the optimal donation time for your

organisation will provide the most successful route.

Good luck, and if you would like to discuss your Christmas campaign planning, please drop

us an email at [email protected].

http://[email protected].

t: +44 (0) 20 3872 2090

e: [email protected]

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