Prepare for Counterfactual Donation Matching on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020

By Gina_Stuessy @ 2020-11-25T21:08 (+67)

Summary: Facebook is matching donations made on December 1, 2020, and the EA Giving Tuesday team has updated, well-researched advice for donors to give them the best chance of getting matched. Join hundreds of EAs on this day to collectively direct Facebook’s matching funds toward EA-aligned organizations.

Prepare now for this year’s match

The day which many EAs refer to as their favorite holiday of the year—Giving Tuesday—is coming up fast!

The EA Giving Tuesday team has put together instructions to improve donors’ chances of getting matched by Facebook. To take advantage of this uncommon, counterfactual matching opportunity, please read our instructions and complete the recommended preparation steps. Please do this as early as you can, and no later than November 30.

Facebook is again matching donations up to $7 million, though this year they are matching the first $2 million in donations at 100%, and (we believe) the next $50 million in donations at 10%, resulting in the remaining $5 million in matching funds. The EA Giving Tuesday team is focusing on the 100% match, and we expect it to run out within seconds.

In response to this year’s match terms and what we’ve learned in past years, we have a new recommendation to submit donations 1–2 seconds before the match begins (our whitepaper explains why we recommend this). Donating quickly is especially important this year, and our new donation simulator makes it easier to improve through practice.

To get ready for the match, we recommend that donors promptly start preparing:

Pledge your donations as soon as possible: The pledges allow us to do what we can to avoid reaching the maximum limit Facebook sets for any one nonprofit.^[1]
Prepare no later than Nov 30: Read through our detailed instructions, which include setting up your computer, setting up payment method(s) in Facebook, making fast donations, and learning to prepare for a possible extra confirmation dialog for your donation(s).
Practice test donations no later than Nov 30: Practice your donations either on Facebook or on our fancy new simulator.
Donate carefully and quickly on Dec 1: On Giving Tuesday, start preparing your donation(s) several minutes before the match, visit our website for any last-minute announcements, and follow the other specifics (e.g., on timing) you learned from our instructions to complete your donation(s) within as few seconds as possible.

Questions? Please read our FAQ, comment below, email us at contact@eagivingtuesday.org, or ask in our Facebook group.

You can also add the event to your Google Calendar here.

About EA Giving Tuesday

EA Giving Tuesday, a project of Rethink Charity, supports and encourages donors and EA-aligned nonprofits to participate in Facebook’s Giving Tuesday donation matching program. Between 2017 and 2019, EA Giving Tuesday has helped direct $1 million in matching funds from Facebook to EA-aligned nonprofits.

Related EA Forum posts about Giving Tuesday:

In some cases, we are working with multiple nonprofits who could accept donations on behalf of others, so we are able to do some rebalancing for those nearing the $100,000 limit per nonprofit. ↩︎

agent18 @ 2020-11-30T11:58 (+1)

Just also want to point out that I have not subscribed to their mailing lists but was aggressively pursued by ads from CE (or other) and other posts on EA forum which made me aware that I should participate in this.

jacobpfau @ 2020-11-30T02:04 (+1)

Would it make sense for the Giving Tuesday organization to send out an annual reminder email? I have re-categorized all of my EA newsletters, and so they don't go to my main inbox. Maybe most people have calendar events, or the like, set up. Maybe though for people who almost forgot about Giving Tuesday (like me) a reminder email could be useful!

AviNorowitz @ 2020-11-30T02:32 (+2)

Hi Jacob. If you complete our sign-up form or our pledge form, then you'll be added to our mailing list and should receive reminders in future years.

Sign-up form: https://eagiv.org/signup
Pledge form: https://eagiv.org/pledge

You may also want to add a filter to direct emails from contact@eagivingtuesday.org into your primary inbox.

jacobpfau @ 2020-11-30T02:47 (+1)

Ah great, I have pledged. Is this new this year? Or maybe I didn't fill out the pledge last year; I don't remember.

Gina_Stuessy @ 2020-11-30T16:00 (+2)

Hey Jacob, not new this year. The EA GT team has done an email list at least the past 2 years, but I bet all 3 past years they were involved in the Facebook match.

This year we also have an option for pledgers to receive text reminders (U.S. phone #s only).