Charities are being urged to step up their Christmas campaigning this December during a ‘golden’ hour of between 11am and 12noon on Fridays.

The findings have emerged in analysis of giving during December for the last three years, taking in pre and post pandemic giving as well as Covid’s impact on donations during the run up to Christmas.

The analysis by online fundraising firm Enthuse found that weekdays are “significantly more popular for donations than weekends”. While this trend is all year round the difference is particularly pronounced in December.

This found that giving builds up from Monday to Friday, which is the best day to attract donations, before tailing off markedly on Saturday and Sunday.

“Understandably, people tend to focus their weekend outgoings on catching up with friends and family, shopping, going out for food and other forms of entertainment. This leads to less time for getting involved with charity and means that disposable income is often being used up elsewhere.”

Christmas Eve is a traditional strong donation day, which contributed to a strong Friday performance on average last year.

Enthuse suggests that as Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday this year, Friday December 23rd “might be in line to be the peak this year”. However, Enthuse adds that this year’s timing of Christmas Eve could also see that Saturday emerge as a key day for giving.

Overall, when considering the last three years, “Monday, Saturday and Sunday are relatively quiet days for donations and this is something charities should factor into their planning”, said Enthuse.

For the last two years mid-morning and early afternoons have performed best in terms of giving in December, according to Enthuse.

It found that 10am to 1pm is the most popular period for giving, with 11am to 12 noon marginally the best performing hour in 2021, with 7.9% of a day’s donations arriving at this time. The hours from 10am and after 12pm are also strong, with 7% of giving on these days.

“In terms of times to avoid, charities won’t be surprised to learn that before 8am and after 8pm donations see diminishing returns,” said Enthuse.

“We can assume that this is because people are just getting up to start their day or are logging off devices and trying to unwind. If charities are able to tailor their paid media advertising by time of day, keeping it between 8am and 8pm would be well advised.

“Charities can look to schedule email campaigns and social posts to go out between 10am and 1pm with a strong degree of confidence in 2022, backed by two years’ worth of data.

“Making sure outreach is delivered to supporters between breakfast and lunch seems to be the way to go.”

Christmas working patterns settle post-Covid

Enthuse founder and chief executive Chester Mojay-Sinclare added: “We’re seeing donation patterns emerge in the past couple of years that should help charities plan their Christmas fundraising campaigns with a good degree of certainty.

“Working patterns have settled since the outbreak of Covid and people’s giving habits have adapted. The challenge for charities will not necessarily be which time periods to prioritise but how they spread their budget across those days and hours.”

“The cost-of-living crisis will of course impact Christmas giving in 2022 which is why maximising digital fundraising efforts will be so important. Ensuring your charity gets the right message, to the right people, at the right time will have a real impact on your festive fundraising.”

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