I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, a successful black Friday, are enjoying your cyber Monday, and are now ready for the most important day of all…today’s #GivingTuesday. What is #GivingTuesday, you ask? It is a movement that began in 2012 to celebrate and support giving and philanthropy. This year with COVID and the devastating repercussions on so many nonprofits Giving Tuesday is especially important.
Giving Tuesday History
Giving Tuesday began as something to counter Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It was started by New York’s 92nd Street Y, which has over 140 years of fundraising experience. They reached out to the United Nations Foundation and joined as partners. Soon after, big corporations and non-profits signed on to help spread the word and the rest is history, as they say.
More than that, #GivingTuesday has become a global movement that last year united over 98 countries around the world by sharing our human capacity to care for and empower one another. And today more than ever we need to be doing a little bit more of that…
Volunteering
What I think is even more fantastic, is the volunteering efforts that go along with the day. If you are not sure where to start then merely go to the #GivingTuesday link here and you will find a list of local volunteer opportunities in your neighborhood.
Last year alone over 700,000 people volunteered for clothing drives, tutoring projects, and a wide range of activities aimed at helping local non-profits across the country. Almost 40,000 charities, corporate and civic partners registered to officially be a part of Giving Tuesday this year.
Sheila Herring from the Case Foundation was quoted as saying,”The biggest thing for us is that Giving Tuesday directly challenges Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What if, as a nation, we focused that kind of attention on giving and we wanted that to be our identity?”
The Impact
On GivingTuesday, December 3, 2019, the global giving day generated $2 billion in giving, just in the United States, and inspired millions of people worldwide to volunteer, perform countless acts of kindness, and donate their voices, time, money, and goods. Each year Giving Tuesday has grown in its impact and reach. The result is that millions of people in need are helped. As we begin the season of giving think about those causes that you care about and how you can support them. When we come together in unity, we can make beautiful things happen.
Charity Matters.
