Answering clients' questions about Giving Tuesday
Among the many client questions you and other attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors can be prepared to answer as year-end approaches is, "What is Giving Tuesday? And why the hashtag that often precedes it in print or online?"
Giving Tuesday — or "GivingTuesday" to be more accurate — has become a philanthropic phenomenon of sorts, generating support and enthusiasm from a wide range of people and institutions. Many of your clients are likely reading about GivingTuesday in the media, especially after the Gates Foundation recently announced its $10 million gift to support the effort.
Celebrating 10 years in 2022 — and vastly different from both the Black Friday and Cyber Monday that it follows — GivingTuesday is a day of generosity. Generosity of time, effort, money, concern, or any other well-intended act of giving.
Facts about GivingTuesday:
Started in 2012.
More than a day, GivingTuesday is a movement and an organization.
Founded at New York's 92nd Street Y and celebrated globally.
Falls on the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving, always.
Though not strictly a fundraiser, money "moved" has grown from $28 million in 2013 to $2.7 billion in the U.S. in 2021.
Clients typically get involved in GivingTuesday by supporting their favorite charitable organizations. Many nonprofits promote GivingTuesday as an important source of funds for their organizations, and they frequently encourage their donors — your clients — to give via cash, check, or online. Your clients also can participate in GivingTuesday by recommending grants from their Donor Advised Funds at the PACF to their favorite organizations.
Far beyond simple acts of benevolence, GivingTuesday is steeped in the idea of "radical generosity," which the organization describes as giving to create systemic change, or to "recognize that we each can drive an enormous amount of positive change by rooting our everyday actions, decisions and behavior in radical generosity — the concept that the suffering of others should be as intolerable to us as our own suffering. Radical generosity invites people in to give what they can to create systemic change."
Beyond monetary donations, systemic change comes from participating in activities like social media advocacy (the # in #GivingTuesday that creates ripple-effect awareness online), sharing love, spreading kindness, supporting a food pantry, shopping local, or hosting a food or coat drive.
To help clients learn more or get answers to additional questions about GivingTuesday, please reach out to your community foundation. Our team welcomes your call!
PACF
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