November ’17 Recap featured image placeholder

We continued to see incredible growth this November. More groups used our tools than ever before, and small-dollar donors raised 2.7 times more money than in November 2015. Some of this growth even outpaced historical patterns: Supporters raised more money in November than they did in October for the first time since 2011.

Folks had many reasons to be motivated, from the major Democratic gains in state and local elections on November 7 to the special Senate election in Alabama this week. The month also ended with one of the biggest fundraising days of the year: Giving Tuesday, the charitable response to Black Friday.

Check out all the highlights from November below:

Topline Numbers

November ’13 November ’15 November ’17
Contributions 194,232 628,036 1,362,751
Total Amount $7,575,727 $18,109,714 $49,174,649
Avg. Contribution Size $39.00 $28.84 $36.08
Unique campaigns, committees,
and organizations
1,484 1,841 4,771

A record-breaking 4,771 campaigns and organizations raised money on our platform last month. A lot of this growth came from the unprecedented number of people choosing to run for office.
Additionally, small-dollar donors made nearly 100,000 more contributions in November than they did in October 2017, even though October benefitted from final Election Day pushes.

On Giving Tuesday, we saw clear spikes in contributions at certain hours. The chart below shows the number of new contributions to both 501(c)3s and 501(c)4s on the big day by hour (Eastern Standard Time). Donations started off early at 7 a.m. and spiked at 3 p.m., but the busiest hours by far were after the end of the traditional working day. There was a massive bump at 7 p.m. and another at 11 p.m. as supporters tried to get their donations in before the deadline.

Giving Tuesday New Contributions By Hour

Express

November ’13 November ’15 November ’17
New Express Users 14,862 51,862 58,367
% of Total Volume via Express 41.6% 60.2% 53.4%
% of Contributions via Express 52.9% 68.6% 59.4%

Mobile

November ’13 November ’15 November ’17
% of Contributions via Mobile 18.4% 32.1% 40.7%
% Mobile for
ActBlue Express Users
21.5% 35.0% 41.2%

Our automatically mobile-optimized contribution forms help empower grassroots donors during big moments. When a candidate or organization launches a rapid response campaign, mobile-optimized forms allow donors to give quickly, no matter what device they’re using. With 40.7% of all contributions made via mobile last month, groups that aren’t thinking with a mobile-first mindset will miss out on a huge number of contributions, especially during breaking news.

Recurring

November ’13 November ’15 November ’17
Total Recurring Volume $621,341 $5,569,388 $10,519,004
% of Total Volume 8.2% 30.8% 21.4%

This November, 21.4% of all contributions were recurring. As we’re not even a full year into Trump’s presidency, recurring donations are more important than ever so that the groups opposing his policies have the funds they need to stay in the fight.

Customer Service

November ’17
Total Incoming Calls 8,020
Email Conversations 22,088

Our Customer Service team received over 22,000 emails in November — that’s more emails than there are people in Concord, Massachusetts, where the Revolutionary War started!

December is already proving to be busy, with important fights over government spending, DACA recipients, and children’s health care. And nonprofits are in the thick of their busiest season of the year. We expect to be busy right through New Year’s Eve. If you want help perfecting your end-of-year fundraising strategy or planning for next year, or if you have questions about this post, get in touch with us at info@actblue.com.

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