Giving Tuesday 2019

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Update January 25, 2020: $77,325 was donated to MIRI through Facebook on Giving Tuesday. $45,915 of this was donated within 13.5 seconds of the Facebook matching event starting at 5:00AM PT and was matched by Facebook. Thank you to everybody who set their clocks early to support us so generously! Shout out too to the EA Giving Tuesday and Rethink Charity team for their amazing efforts on behalf of the EA Community.

Update December 2, 2019: This page has been updated to reflect (a) observed changes in Facebook’s flow for donations of $500 or larger (b) additional information on securing matching for donations of $2,500 or larger during Facebook’s matching event and (c) a pointer to Paypal’s newly announced, though significantly smaller, matching event(s). Please check in here for more updates before the Facebook Matching event begins at 5am PT on December 3.

MIRI’s annual fundraiser begins this Monday, December 2, 2019 and Giving Tuesday takes place the next day; starting at 5:00:00am PT (8:00:00am ET) on December 3, Facebook will match donations made on fundraiser pages on their platform up to a total of $7,000,000. This post focuses on this Facebook matching event. (You can find information on Paypal’s significantly smaller matching events in the footnotes.1)

  1. Donations during Facebook’s Giving Tuesday event will be matched dollar for dollar on a first-come, first-served basis until the $7,000,000 in matching funds are used up. Based on trends in previous years, this will probably occur within 10 seconds.
  2. Any US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit eligible to receive donations on Facebook, e.g. MIRI, can be matched.
  3. Facebook will match up to a total of $100,000 per nonprofit organization.
  4. Each donor can have up to $20,000 in eligible donations matched on Giving Tuesday. There is a default limit of $2,499 per donation. Donors who wish to donate more than $2,499 have multiple strategies to choose from (below) to increase the chances of their donations being matched.

In 2018, Facebook’s matching pool of $7M was exhausted within 16 seconds of the event starting and in that time, 66% of our lightning-fast donors got their donations to MIRI matched, securing a total of $40,072 in matching funds. This year, we’re aiming for the per-organization $100,000 maximum and since it’s highly plausible that this year’s matching event will end within 4-10 seconds, here are some tips to improve the chances of your donation to MIRI’s Fundraiser Page on Facebook being matched.

Pre-Event Preparation (before Giving Tuesday)

  • Confirm your FB account is operational.
  • Add your preferred credit card(s) as payment method(s) in your FB settings page. Credit cards are plausibly mildly preferable to Paypal as a payment option in terms of donation speed.
  • Test your payment method(s) ahead of time by donating small amount(s) to MIRI’s Fundraiser page.
  • If your credit card limit is lower than the amount you’re considering donating, it may be possible to (a) overpay the balance ahead of time and/or (b) call your credit card asking them to (even temporarily) increase your limit.
  • If you plan to donate more than $2,499, see below for instructions.
  • Sync whatever clock you’ll be using with time.is.
  • Consider pledging your donation to MIRI at EA Giving Tuesday.2

Donating on Giving Tuesday

On Tuesday, December 3, BEFORE 5:00:00am PT — it’s advisable to be alert and ready 10-20 minutes before the event — prepare your donation, so you can make your donation with a single click when the event begins at 5:00:00am PT.

  1. Open an accurate clock at time.is.
  2. In a different browser window alongside, open MIRI’s Fundraiser Page on Facebook in your browser.
  3. Click on the Donate button.
  4. In the “Donate” popup that surfaces:
    • Enter your donation amount — between $5 and $2,499. See below for larger donations.
    • Choose whichever card you’re using for your donation.
    • Optionally enter a note and/or adjust the donation visibility.
  5. At 05:00:00 PST, click on the Green Donate button. If your donation amount is $500 or larger, you may be presented with an additional “Confirm Your Donation” dialog. If so, click on its Donate button as quickly as possible.

Larger Donations

By default, Facebook places a limit of $2,499 per donation (in the US3), and will match up to $20,000 per donor. If you’re in a position to donate $2,500 or more to MIRI, you can:

  1. Use multiple browser windows/tabs for each individual donation: open up MIRI’s Fundraiser Page on Facebook in as many tabs as needed in your browser and follow the instructions above in each window/tab so you have multiple Donate buttons ready to click, one in each tab. Then at 5:00:00 PT, channel your lightning and click as fast as you can — one of our star supporters last year made 8 donations within 21 seconds, 5 of which were matched.

    and/or

  2. Before the event — ideally not the morning of — follow EA Giving Tuesday’s instructions on how to increase your per-donation limit on Facebook above $2,499. Our friends at EA Giving Tuesday estimate that “you are likely to be able to successfully donate up to $9,999 per donation” after following these instructions. Their analysis also suggests that going higher than $10,000 for an individual donation plausibly significantly increases the probability of being declined and therefore advise not going beyond $9,999 per donation. It is possible that Facebook may put a cap of $2,499 on individual donations closer to the event.

Using a combination of the above, a generous supporter could, for example, make 2 donations of $9,999 each — in separate browser windows — within seconds of the event starting.

  1. Paypal has 3 separate matching events on Giving Tuesday — all of which add 10% to eligible donations — for the USA, Canada, and the UK.
  2. Thanks to Ari, William, Rethink Charity and all at EA Giving Tuesday for their work to help EA organizations maximize their share of Facebook’s matching funds.
  3. For up-to-date information on Facebook’s donation limits outside the US, check out EA Giving Tuesday’s doc.