According to an annual report, colleges and universities have seen an increase in dollars raised online in the year 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic uncertainty.
The report, conducted by higher education solutions provider Anthology, found that college and universities saw a 10 percent increase in dollars raised online and four-year public institutions saw an increase of 16 percent in online donations.
“It’s both incredible and heartening that colleges and universities largely experienced a boost in online giving in 2020, despite the many uncertainties about the level of support for higher education because of the pandemic,” said Jim Milton, CEO of Anthology. “Based on this latest data and understanding the importance of providing both personalized engagement and a variety of giving options, institutions have a real opportunity to continue refining and improving their online giving strategies.”
Anthology analyzed the online giving data from 220 public and private four-year higher education institutions. The report found that the number of online gifts grew by nearly six percent in 2020 and the average online gift size grew to $428 in 2020, up from $412 in 2019.
Towards the beginning of the pandemic, online giving slowed, but picked up the week of May 3 when GivingTuesday Now was held and raised $2.5 million more than the same week in 2019.
Further, digital wallet spending increased substantially over the past year. According to the report, Anthology’s customer institutions received more than 57,000 donations via digital wallets, totaling $12.3 million in 2020 – a 54 percent increase in transactions and 48 percent increase in dollars processed from 2019.
