PayPal sees big uptick in donations while broader sector softens
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30676 |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR NOVEMBER 2019
6© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1002/nba
Industry News
PayPal sees big uptick in donations while
broader sector softens
Overall charitable giving in the United States
stagnated over the last year, with the latest Giving
USA report showing a drop of 1.7% for 2018 and
more recent data showing 2019 faltering as well. But
not all areas of the sector are seeing a slowdown, and
some may offer insight into how to buck the trend
and bolster donations by a sizable margin.
Such is the case with PayPal, an online payment
facilitator that serves hundreds of thousands of
charities around the world, helping them solicit and
process cash donations from their supporters and the
wider public. In the face of 2018’s downturn, PayPal
actually saw a 13% increase in the dollar amount of
charitable donations made through its platform. The
company’s 2018 gures are as follows:
• 55.1 million people donated to charity through
PayPal worldwide.
• Those donors made a total of 114.9 million gifts
through the platform, up 20% from 2017, when 94.8
million gifts were made, and the 81.9 million gifts
made in 2016.
• Over $9.6 billion in cash donations were pro-
cessed through the platform—up from $8.5 billion
in 2017 and $7.3 billion in 2016.
• The average donation amount was $83.73 in
2018, down from $89.05 in 2017.
• The average donor is giving through PayPal more
frequently than before—they made 2.08 donations dur-
ing the course of the year, an 8% increase over 2017.
According to the company’s annual report on its
corporate social responsibility initiatives, helping
charities maximize their donations has become a
central plank in its broader CSR mission to achieve
nancial health for all. PayPal works to leverage its
technology and scale to help nonprots raise funds,
while also providing more—and easier—ways for the
public to connect with groups and causes they care
about—as the company says, “anytime, anywhere,
and in any amount.”
On one hand, what this means is making sure
that the process of donating is quick and intuitive,
starting with easy-to-locate “donate” buttons that
charities can place on their websites and in campaign
appeals that work seamlessly with PayPal’s processing
systems. But the company is also helping charities in
their efforts to expand their mobile-based donations
through its PayPal Here program, which enables
fundraisers to collect in-person contributions via a
tablet or smartphone while in the eld. In fact, 27%
of its 2018 transactions were made via mobile.
And nonprots can enroll in the PayPal Giving
Fund, a donor-advised fund that awards grants us-
ing funds donated by individual donors via eBay and
other online vendor partners. Only charities ofcially
enrolled in the program are eligible, and donors can
earmark their donations for a specic charitable
recipient.
PayPal also has a couple in-house efforts that use
its platform to directly raise funds for charity:
• Disaster relief. PayPal launches fundraising ap-
peals to raise funds for relief organizations that pro-
vide essential services to the people and communities
impacted by natural disasters. For these campaigns, the
company covers all transaction costs so that 100% of
every gift goes to support relief and response efforts. In
2018, the company’s campaigns raised about $2.25 mil-
lion, in addition to millions of dollars that individual
charities raised through PayPal’s fundraising platform.
• Giving Tuesday. Since Giving Tuesday was
launched in 2012, PayPal has partnered with its
founding organization, the 92nd Street Y, by pro-
viding convenient, secure portals for customers to
make donations online. In 2018, the company also
launched a #GivingTuesday campaign in 11 markets,
asking its customers to join in and donate to a charity
participating in the annual event. PayPal partnered
with Facebook on a program to match $7 million in
donations made through the two platforms. All told,
PayPal’s #GivingTuesday campaign spurred about 1
million of its customers across 180 markets to donate
nearly $98 million to charity.
The company’s goal is to integrate opportunities
for charitable giving throughout the PayPal customer
experience, while helping its nonprot partners to do
the same across their websites, email and apps, mak-
ing it easy for people to support charities whenever
and wherever they are inspired to help.
(See PAYPA L on page 8)
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