Giving Day by the Numbers: NECC’s Inaugural Giving Day Demonstrates the Power of Collective Support

This post was co-written by Andrew Nguyen and Sarah Comiskey

On April 7, 2022, Northern Essex Community College (NECC) launched its first-ever Giving Day, a large scale 24-hour fundraising challenge designed to bring together faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends for a day of philanthropy and friendly competition. The incentive? The advancement team proposed that if NECC could gather 100 donors by midnight, the Board of Trustees would provide an additional $10,000 in support of NECC’s annual fund, the NECC Fund.

The initial goal of 100 was somewhat ambitious for NECC — prior 24-hour fundraising efforts, including Giving Tuesday, garnered an average of 50 to 60 donors each, meaning that the inaugural Giving Day goal stood at roughly double that of our historic single-day donor counts.

Reaching 100 could have been a stretch… but the results far exceeded even our highest aspirations.

In all, and with support from every area of the college, NECC raised a whopping $34,604 from 206 donors, more than doubling our goal and making our first Giving Day the largest single-day community fundraising effort in NECC Fund history.

The power of the collective that we saw on April 7 became especially evident when examining the data that was collected throughout the day. Here’s a snapshot:

• Half (50%) of Giving Day donors had never previously contributed to NECC Fund
• 85% of gifts came from individual donations of $100 and below!
• Our donors represented all areas of the Merrimack Valley and beyond

We were pleased to see that Giving Day generated a tremendous show of support from all audiences, particularly the internal community:

NECC saw a notable increase in support from younger donors. The average donor age on Giving Day was 53, while our average NECC Fund donor age is 62.

About 38% of donations, or $13,127, were contributed online. Most gifts came in during standard business hours (8 AM – 5 PM). The first online donation of the day came in at 12:25 AM. We have to applaud the commitment of this donor for supporting the NECC fund so early!

Here’s a peek at the hour-by-hour timeline of online donations:

Most of our donors came from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in close proximity to NECC.

While the bulk of our donors came from the Merrimack Valley, we’re also thankful for the generosity of those outside the Northeast!

NECC experienced a great show of support on social media as well. We saw an especially markable increase in social media activity relative to the eve of Giving Day:

Every number tells a story – and each story points to the incredible things that can happen when our community comes together around a common cause. Thank you to all those who posted, contributed, participated, and rallied in support of this special day! To learn more about NECC’s annual giving efforts, please contact giving@necc.mass.edu