What is
GivingTuesday?
GivingTuesday began in the U.S. in 2012 and was brought to Canada in 2013, and will be
recognized each year as the day following Cyber Monday. GivingTuesday is a movement
dedicated to bringing attention and action to opportunities for giving back as well as creating
opportunities for others to give back. GivingTuesday is a day where charities, companies, and
individuals join together in a commitment to give back through time or money, rally together
for supported causes, and to put the thought of others before the thought of oneself.
GivingTuesday & Mobile Giving
With two days every year dedicated to in store and online shopping, there is now a day
devoted to giving back. GivingTuesday made its Canadian debut on December 3, 2013.
Hundreds of charities joined with GivingTuesday leading up to this day, each making a
commitment to take action and get the word out about this movement.
Like many other charities, the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada (MGF-C) jumped at the
opportunity to support GivingTuesday’s journey north of the border and became a founding
partner of this great initiative. As a founding partner, MGF-C offered the use of a single
GivingTuesday specific keyword, at no cost, to charities that had an existing agreement with
MGF-C and those that partnered with GivingTuesday. Charities that weren’t currently working
with MGF-C, but that wanted to explore the option of text-to-donate, were also offered the
same opportunity. Once having completed the respective charitable program agreement with
MGF-C, by the November 1, 2013 deadline, interested charities were eligible to participate in
their own text-to-donate campaign on GivingTuesday.
More than 30 charities actively responded to the buzz this created and worked together with
MGF-C to start their mobile giving campaign; making donating on GivingTuesday only a text
message away. Of those 30 charities, more than 20 were completely new to the world of
mobile giving! The Mobile Giving Foundation Canada also offered a very unique feature for
GivingTuesday campaigns; after completing a donation, donors were sent a link that allowed
them to share how they took action for GivingTuesday on Facebook or Twitter. With the help
of social media, the word spread quickly about opportunities for giving back on Tuesday,
December 3, 2013. So much so, that #GivingTuesdayCA became a trending topic on Twitter!
Impact & Results
Despite the fact that this was Canada’s first year participating in the GivingTuesday
movement, we can see the positive impact it has had on a number of charitable organizations,
communities, and individuals. This impact is reported in the many blog entries available for
reading on the GivingTuesday Canada web site. For those charities that opted to use mobile
giving for the very first time, MGF-C has closely monitored and analysed the results to
determine the impact of GivingTuesday on mobile giving activity. Here are some of the results
tracked from the GivingTuesday mobile giving campaigns:

Not only was $1,560.00 raised from GivingTuesday campaigns alone, this reflects
more than 40% of total funds raised through mobile giving that day!

In total, $3,575.00 was raised by mobile donations on GivingTuesday! This is more
than 7 times the total value of mobile donations made the year before.

When comparing figures from the first week in December 2012 to 2013, there was a
178% increase in donations made!

New charities using text-to-donate raised more than 65% of the total funds raised by
GivingTuesday campaigns that day!

More than 50% of donors clicked the link each received after making a text message
donation, which represents an expression of the intent to share how each took action
on GivingTuesday!
Hundreds of charities and thousands of Canadians across the country embraced GivingTuesday
and the powerful message it carries. Each individual, charity, and organization played a role in
the success GivingTuesday had in its first year in Canada. Though the bar is set high after the
results of GivingTuesday 2013, even greater success can be expected in the years to come.
Join the movement – Visit www.givingtuesday.ca today!
Case Study Prepared by:
Caitlin O’Neill, Client Services Team & Katherine Winchester, Manager, Mobile Giving
Foundation Canada