Dear friends,

Giving Tuesday delivered both momentum and a reminder of the shifting donor landscape. For most of our clients, we saw strong same-day performance: more donations on the day itself and higher total revenue. But Giving Tuesday does not stand alone. It sits within a comprehensive campaign strategy that begins weeks in advance, often extends past the day with match extension opportunities, and sets the tone for the rest of year-end.

When you look at that broader arc, a clear pattern emerges of higher revenue, but fewer gifts. This mirrors the industry-wide reality of shrinking donor files and a smaller pool of increasingly valuable donors. It’s a signal that continued, strategic investment in acquisition is not optional; it’s necessary.

Our senior vice president of digital, Mary Meredith, reminds me that when we zoom out even further, the pattern also echoes the Lipstick Effect. When consumer confidence is low, people cut back on spending, but still invest in smaller, meaningful choices that make them feel good. And in fundraising, that means donors give where trust, value, and connection are strongest.

Giving Tuesday is just the beginning. We will continue to analyze and optimize results throughout year-end to build on that foundation and ensure our clients finish strong.

Word of the Year

Oxford University Press announced its word of the year for 2025, and it’s a doozy: “rage bait.” Beating out “aura farming” and “biohack” from the 2025 shortlist, and following 2024’s “brain rot,” the choice further highlights cultural frustration with online discourse and digital platforms. Once again, these linguistic standouts are a fascinating, if sometimes concerning, window into broad cultural trends.

The Oxford Word of the Year winner is…

rage bait

(noun) “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content”

The Rise of “Fastvertising”

Last week’s episode of Harvard Business Review’s Ideacast covered “fastvertising,” i.e. campaigns that roll out quickly in response to current events and trends. It’s an interesting conversation about why fast marketing works and what it takes for an organization to execute quickly and responsibly. Host Alison Beard credits the idea to marketers at Oreos, who responded to the 2013 Super Bowl power outage with a clever tweet that quickly went viral: “Power out, no problem. You can still dunk in the dark.”

However, I can’t help thinking that nonprofits were ahead of the curve. Urgent appeals and rapid response have been in our DNA since the early days of direct mail fundraising. Today, digital channels have faster turnaround and present new opportunities for outreach, but the core principle holds—and fundraisers have a head start on many of these practices. Great job, nonprofits!

Spotify Wrapped

Spotify Wrapped dropped last week, and as usual it’s a great case study on customer experience, data collection, and branding. According to social psychologist Marilynn Brewer, the campaign works because it meets two basic human needs: individualization and belonging. Combining behavioral science, analytics, and digital marketing, Spotify achieves massive engagement with this campaign year after year. However, look for changes in your Wrapped experience this year – 2024’s design was criticized by many users for relying too heavily on AI, and Spotify has tried to respond, while also leaning in where AI adds value.

“[Spotify Wrapped] reframes all this digital tracking that’s constantly happening behind the scenes into something that’s fun … And so, instead of kind of feeling under surveillance, users (are) basically feeling seen.” 

– Northeastern University marketing professor Yakov Bart

Your Next Opportunity

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the nonprofit job market has tightened in the wake of funding cuts, layoffs, and other challenges. If you’re looking for your next role, you may need to cast a wider net. Fortunately, there are many excellent nonprofit job boards, compiled here by Nonprofit Tech for Good. In addition, LinkedIn’s Nonprofit Talent Report has data on the latest trends. Best of luck to everyone who is job-seeking or hiring this season!