5 Things to Know About Giving Tuesday

A new movement meant to promote charity after Black Friday and Cyber Monday has grown with help from social media.

“Giving Tuesday” has received support from charities and corporations alike. Only in its third year, it has also picked up steam with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Here are things to know about Giving Tuesday:

How It Started

Giving Tuesday was started in 2012 by 92nd Street Y, a cultural institution in New York. Although it isn’t clear how much money the holiday raised in its first year, it did gain high profile followers. Charity organizations like the United Nations Foundation, GlobalGiving, and Crowdrise, as well as companies like Microsoft, Sony and the Case Foundation, also joined the cause during that year.

What It’s About

The point of Giving Tuesday is to celebrate charity, but it isn’t necessarily about money. Rather, it is a movement to encourage people all around the world to think of ways they can show generosity. As the video above explains, this could mean giving a tweet, giving your time, or even giving everyone at the office something to smile about.

Who Is Taking Part

Many organizations are offering people ways to get engaged in Giving Tuesday:

  • The United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries will match donations made to one of its programs that assists in missions.
     
  • Microsoft is matching donations made through YouthSpark on GlobalGiving, a site that supports education and employment for young adults.
     
  • Walmart Foundation will donate $1.5 million in grants to food pantries which will help buy new equipment and pay for renovations. The company is also holding a campaign to get the public to join in on the support.
     
  • PayPal is offering to match 1% of all gifts made in December though their Giving Fund, beginning December 2 and ending at the end of the month.
     
  • The Salvation Army is supporting the holiday by incorporating it into its #RedKettleReason campaign to support the movement's social media presence.

You can see other organizations taking part in the holiday here.

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How to Get Involved

One easy way to get involved is to promote selflessness with a hashtag that will both appear on the holiday’s site as well as throughout social media. Simply take a photo, tag it with #Unselfie and #GivingTuesday, and upload it to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook on Dec. 4 to support the campaign. You can also contribute to campaigns listed above.

Want to do more? You can also become a partner or a social media ambassador on the holiday's website.

I Don’t Know, Is There An App?

Fundraising platform website Crowdrise created an app showing a virtual representation of charity. Each time someone donates, a block is placed on a visual tower that includes a photo of the donor and details the recipient, as shown in the video above.

“People can watch donations grow like a thermometer for measuring donations,” Crowdrise co-founder Robert Wolfe said to NBC about the app, which is available to download in the Google Play Store and iTunes. 

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