What is Giving Tuesday?
Following two of the biggest shopping days of the year, Giving Tuesday celebrates generously giving back. The organization dedicated to encouraging kindness marks 10 years in 2022 on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
“There’s not a person or community in the entire world where generosity is not important,” Giving Tuesday CEO Asha Curran said.
Here’s what you should know about the global generosity movement today, and how anyone can participate any day of the year:
Who created Giving Tuesday?
The annual day of giving began in 2012 following two major consumption days in the U.S., Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as a way to honor the value of generosity, Curran told USA TODAY.
“In the very beginning, we acknowledged there are two days that are tremendously powerful for the retail sector and for-profit businesses,” said Curran, who added that countries where Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t recognized participate in Giving Tuesday.
“This was an interesting counternarrative to challenge ourselves to think about the importance of giving back to nonprofit organizations, causes we care about and to each other.”
It has since grown to a year-round movement officially celebrated across more than 85 countries, including Brazil, Ukraine and Zambia. Giving Tuesday activity takes place in every country and territory around the world annually, according to the organization.
The billions of dollars donated to Giving Tuesday over a decade have come not from wealthy philanthropists, Curran said, but from everyday Americans inspired to support meaningful causes.
How does Giving Tuesday work?
Giving Tuesday revolves around the power of “radical generosity,” the concept that others’ suffering should be as intolerable to people as their own suffering, according to its website. Simply put, it means we’re all in this together,
Curran said.
“We can make it really hard on each other, or we can make it much easier on each other, lighten each other’s loads and make each other’s days or lives better,” she said. “By doing that, it will create a more generous future at the roots.”
Money isn’t needed to make an impact, Curran said, as generosity comes in many forms – such as checking in on a neighbor or cooking a meal for a homebound or elderly person.
“We all have the ability to make a huge difference in the lives of other people without spending a dime,” she said.
How to participate
For those not sure where to start, Giving Tuesday organizers often post ideas on how to get involved on their websites and social media.
The organization shared a list of 50 ways to give kindness via Instagram, which included:
h Paying for the coffee of someone behind you in line
h Beautifying a neighborhood corner by planting flowers
h Donating old laptops to a STEM school or nonprofit h Picking up trash h Leaving quarters at the laundromat