PayPal Exceeds $971 Million in Charitable Giving this Holiday
At PayPal, we are committed to our mission to democratize financial services for people all over the world. At the heart of our efforts—is the work we do to harness the power of our global payments platform to create a worldwide network of good. Through our giving platform, we enable people to seamlessly support their communities and the causes they’re most passionate about. In 2016, our customers’ generosity resulted in double-digit percent increases in charitable giving on the PayPal platform.
In 2016, our users gave $7.3 billion in donations, including over $971 million during the holiday season.
Over the holiday season, charitable support in Canada was at an all-time high. Canadians demonstrated their generosity by giving over US $48.7 million to causes they love; ranking 2nd highest among the top countries in total amount given by PayPal users. It represents a US $5 million increase in giving compared to the previous year. It’s a true testament to the generous Canadian spirit of giving back to their communities and causes considering the United Kingdom, which ranked 3rd has over triple the number of PayPal active users (22 million) as compared to Canada (6.4 million).
Throughout the holidays, PayPal tracked donations data on an
interactive tracker which provided insights on giving trends on a global scale and where Canada sits.
- Canada high in the ranks: As the second-highest contributing country during PayPal’s holiday giving period, Canada gave more than other countries with a significantly higher number of active PayPal users. More than 400,000 Canadians donated using PayPal over the holiday season.
- Democratizing philanthropy on a global scale: While the largest single gift of the holiday season was more than $230,000, the average contribution of the nearly 8 million global PayPal users who gave was $93, just slightly above the year-long average of $89.61. Though many consumers save larger gifts for end-of-year contributions, hundreds of thousands of smaller donations added up to close to a billion dollars in giving over the holiday season -- showing that when people step up together, every donation has an impact. Donating digitally also benefits charitable organizations, as donations under $50 are also 14% cheaper than paper checks for a charity to process (recent study).
- Mobile giving continues to climb: Charitable organizations across the globe are not just raising funds through galas, auctions, written appeals and paper checks anymore. With two transformative changes underway – the digitization of cash and the mass adoption of mobile technology–21% of donations were made via a mobile device this holiday season, with 12% more gifts originating from mobile devices as compared to 2015.
- Giving peaks at the end of the year: More donations were processed on December 31st than any other day in 2016, as consumers contributed over $77 million to thousands of charities globally. While the last week of the year saw a tremendous spike in charitable contributions, #GivingTuesday (November 29th) ranked as the third highest day for donations, demonstrating the continued expansion of this global giving movement.
We are grateful for PayPal users’ generosity, and proud to have empowered their tremendous contributions this past year. With the start of 2017, we look forward to another year of truly making a difference by continuing to work together to raise charitable giving to unprecedented levels.
Franz Paasche, SVP Corporate Affairs & Communications, PayPal