Maybe you were one of the shoppers who propelled Black Friday to a record $9.8 billion in online sales this year. Perhaps you ventured out on Small Business Saturday to support local shops before splurging yet again for Cyber Monday.
Well, now is the time to press the pause button on all that profligate spending and instead think charitably as part of GivingTuesday. The annual, global, one-day event promotes “radical generosity,” or the concept that the suffering of others should be as intolerable to us as our own suffering, according to its website.
An open-ended call to action that could be as simple as giving time, expressing gratitude or donating money, GivingTuesday is a movement that relies on local groups to organize events and individuals to give back to their communities through donations to a favorite cause, volunteer work or a simple act of kindness.
Now in its eleventh year, GivingTuesday began as an initiative of the 92nd Street Y and United Nations Foundation in New York City. It has since become a nonprofit running a global event that included 35 million participants and raised $3.1 billion last year alone. In 2023, hundreds of local campaigns are taking place across the U.S., from Spokane, Wash., to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
The humanitarian crisis in Israel and Gaza is one of the top causes individuals are supporting this year, according to Charity Navigator, along with nonprofits supporting disaster relief and recovery for the West Afghanistan earthquake and Hawaii wildfires.
Nonprofits and industy groups say that donations so far are down compared with previous years, and they hope to make up the difference on GivingTuesday amid concerning trends.
The National Council of Nonprofits said in an August report that many organizations anticipate falling financial support this year. That would follow the trend of charitable giving in 2022, which dropped for only the fourth time in 40 years.
Perhaps more concerning for nonprofits, the Giving USA report found fewer people are donating at all, with less than half of Americans giving to charity in 2022 compared with more than two-thirds who gave in 2000.
“GivingTuesday strengthens our ability to provide vital support and programming during the holidays and throughout the year,” Downtown Women’s Center Los Angeles CEO Amy Turk said Monday. Turk was taking part in an event with California Attorney General Rob Bonta to share tips and resources on how to donate safely.
Bonta suggests those who donate money verify charities in advance to make sure their contributions will actually be spent on the charitable cause instead of on overhead or employee compensation. Consumers should also beware of lookalike and fake websites or similar-sounding organization names designed to mislead donors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Correction: This article was updated to correct the stylization of "GivingTuesday."