Given on Tuesday – First Tuesday after Thanksgiving and internationally recognized day for making charitable contributions – is upon us
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is always the kickoff event of the holiday shopping season and one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Marketing experts recognize how popular it is That was followed by Cyber Monday, the second day of mega-sales focused on online shopping, and then Small Business Saturday — the period after Thanksgiving made famous for its deals.
Some people have noticed that maybe many people will want to move away from shopping and do something a little more meaningful.
In 2012, 92nd Street Y New York and United Nations Foundation It launched Giving Tuesday in hopes that after several days of big sales and heavy spending, there would be interest in giving back.
“I remember [92nd Street Y director] Henry Timms says, ‘Take all the days of the week, we’ve got to catch Tuesday,'” Rob Reich, a professor of political science and philosophy at Stanford who studies philanthropy and was involved in the development of Giving Tuesday, said in a statement.
They were right. #GivingTuesday went viral almost instantly, and now 11 Years later, it’s stronger than ever.
At launch, #GivingTuesday was just an idea, some promotion, a social media hashtag, and a package of advice and branding for anyone anywhere who wanted to participate. The 92nd Street Y has created hashtags, marketing tips and resources and released them for any non-profit use.
“It was a deliberate choice not to keep the intellectual property,” Rich told me. “We had a website with a logo but it was not copyrighted. You can use hashtags, do whatever you want with it. Everyone can put their own content on it, hopefully it will spread.”
Since its launch on Tuesday in 2012, Nonprofit organizations all over the United States – and eventually, around the world – hosted fundraisers and events using branding and hashtags associated with the movement. (Officially given on Tuesday 92nd Street is separated from the Y In 2019 to be an independent agency.)
In its first year, it approx That nearly $10 million was donated to charities through online Giving Tuesday fundraisers. The next year, it was $28 million — and the momentum hasn’t really slowed.
Donation injury a Record high in 2022 but remained flat in 2023: The report on Tuesday said that total donations in the United States reached $3.1 billion and about 34 million people participated.
The rapid growth of donors and awareness underscores the fact that Giving Tuesday has become a phenomenon in its own right—an outlet for backlash against the consumerism of the holiday shopping season.
Perfect conditions to launch Giving Tuesday
Shoppers eagerly participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events.
Vox guide to giving
The holiday season is giving. This year, Vox is exploring every element of charitable giving — from making the case for donating 10 percent of your income to recommending specific charities for specific causes, to explaining what you can do to make a difference beyond donations. You can find all the guide stories we have given here.
But … well, many people also hate the post-Thanksgiving shopping crush and question what it says about us as a society. Vox has covered its dire effects on the retail workers who make it happen. website Black Friday Death Count Violence documented in retail stores during Black Friday sales.
So the idea of a day, after the sale, to move away from buying and focus on giving struck a chord. (Also, some researchers have established a link between generosity and gratitude, making after Thanksgiving a good time for people to think about giving.)
Given Tuesday has picked up steam since its first year. In 2013, its second year, it received coverage Charity NavigatorAndChronicle of Philanthropy and a headline donation from Facebook billionaire Dustin Moskowitz to top global poverty charity GiveDirectly. It has also gone international.
“We grew up in 80 countries, [and] Recently welcomed South Sudan and Peru and Nepal and Greece,” Tuesday CEO Asha Curran told me. “Giving Tuesday exists in countries where Black Friday and Cyber Monday don’t exist, and it reminds us that this value unites us.”
Does giving on Tuesdays do any good?
All of these activities are still a relatively small portion of total charitable giving. In 2022, Americans gave $499 billion in charity.
That compares to $3.1 billion that people in the United States contributed in 2022 Just a drop in the bucket given Tuesday. Even if Giving Tuesday continues its exceptionally rapid growth for another decade, it will not be the main source of funding for most charities.
That’s probably a good thing. The best thing for charities is to receive regular donations, ideally recurring monthly. While a day like Giving Tuesday can be a great opportunity to get in the news and start a conversation about our ability to do good in the world, it wouldn’t do well for a nonprofit to become a make-or-break fundraising event.
But the fact that Tuesday contributions are still a small portion of all charitable donations doesn’t mean they don’t matter. It doesn’t take millions of dollars to save a life – it’s estimated that you can save a life, or make something comparable better, for just a few thousand.
And there’s another way Tuesday matters: It’s “not just a fundraising day,” Curran said. It is a day when people talk and think about giving back.
“Donating money is the most common behavior” that the Giving Tuesday team documents, “but only Money was donated at least Normal behavior,” Rosenbaum told me. Most people participate in making the world a better place in multiple ways: by donating, by volunteering, by sharing information about great organizations, and by directly doing important work.
For a sector of our economy where we spend 400 billion dollars last year, thousands of companies working on different projects, the question of how to do good in the world is not discussed enough. It’s probably a good thing for us to talk a little more about how we make decisions that improve our world.
A day to do good
Tuesday’s organizers would not say where people donating should give or volunteer. However, to make the most of the occasion, you need to think about the impact of your contributions, whatever form they take. It’s a great opportunity to dive into a conversation about how to do good in the world. One of the reasons we focus a day on giving is that most people care deeply about their communities, their causes, and the world—but don’t necessarily know how to get the most results with their money, time, or giving. working life.
My colleague Dylan Matthews writes about some strategies for making your money go further — from experimenting with charity evaluators to targeting the poorest people to funding basic research and developing new solutions to our problems. Effective philanthropic groups have created resources to ensure that the causes and charities they are passionate about get the most out of the day, including Grant matching event.
Ultimately, making the world a better place requires generosity and a dedication to measuring impact, talking about what we want to achieve, and better understanding the problems we’re trying to solve.
Update, November 29, 2023: This story was originally published in 2020 and has been updated throughout 2023.
