Giving Tuesday

You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There's another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.

– Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft

The first Giving Tuesday was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, November 27th, 2012. An international day of giving, Giving Tuesday serves as a counterpoint to the excessive consumerism that immediately follows Thanksgiving. For several years, illuminAid has been participating in this global coming together, and we thought it might be time to look back at the history of Giving Tuesday and what the future might bring.

Origins

Giving Tuesday was started by 92nd Street Y (a cultural and community center located in Manhattan) and United Nations Foundation. As a response to the the well-known shopping days which kick off holiday consumerism, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is meant to jump-start the most important part of the holidays: giving back.

Money raised by year (in millions)

From the beginning, Giving Tuesday was intended as a holiday that could take full advantage of social media’s enormous potential to promote charitable causes. The name itself evokes the naming conventions of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and is simple enough for “hashtag activism.” Last year there were over a million social media mentions and 21.7 billion media impressions, a number that has grown every year since the first Giving Tuesday in 2012.

Growth

With every year that passes, Giving Tuesday expands in popularity and recognition. Both the amount of money raised and the number of organizations and countries that participate have experienced incredible growth. In its second year, Giving Tuesday raised $28 million dollars for organizations around the world. Last year, over $300 million was raised, more than a 1000% increase over the course of four years. In 2017, organizations from over 150 different countries from across the globe participated, up from just 43 countries in 2013.

Since its inception, Giving Tuesday has experienced double digit growth in almost every metric including the amount of money donated, an incredible blessing to non-profits around the world.

Future

Giving Tuesday has shown no sign of slowing down. We’re just a few years into its existence yet the day has quickly become the world’s single biggest fundraising event. If you’re interested in learning what illuminAid is doing for this year’s Giving Tuesday, check out our GoFundMe campaign where we are raising money for a project for organizations working within Darfur refugee camps.