I’ve written about Small Business Saturday, a campaign to get holiday shoppers to support local merchants. It’s sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday and this year falls on Nov. 29. It is a great opportunity for small, local businesses to work together to promote their products and services.

After Cyber Monday is a relatively new initiative, Giving Tuesday (Dec. 1 this year), which encourages shoppers to support worthy causes in their communities, across the U.S. and around the world. It’s a great way to give people an altruistic outlet for the season of “good will toward men.”

Established in 2012 by the 92nd St. Y in New York and the United Nations Foundation, Giving Tuesday encourages shoppers to include worthy non-profits on their gift lists.

Last year, I gave gifts to World Vision on behalf of my close family members. Sure it’s fun to buy questionable sweaters and other gifts to place under the tree, but in recent years I’ve found myself purchasing more and more gift cards, which is pretty much the definition of impersonal. I’ve made plenty of missteps in the gift giving department over the years, so it is gratifying to purchase a piece of a reputable non-profit’s mission.

There are many free ideas and resources to help promote Giving Tuesday 2015 at www.givingtuesday.org. I also ran across an interesting infographic on the subject by MobileCause, a cloud-based fundraising and marketing program. The data in the infographic came directly from Giving Tuesday’s records. What impressed me most in the data:

• Giving Tuesday donations jumped from $19 million in 2013 to more than $45 million in 2014.
• Last year there were more than 754,000 Tweets posted with the hashtag #GivingTuesday.
• To generate buzz about the effort, Giving Tuesday challenged supporters/donors of non-profits to post an UNselfie explaining why they choose to support their organization or cause.

If you are part of the leadership of a local non-profit, or if you donate your time and money and want to find out how to encourage others to come on board, visit the Giving Tuesday website. There are many resources for download at no cost.

There’s no time to waste! Dec. 1 will be here before your know it.

If you need assistance email me at danniewriter@gmail.com or call me at (502) 432-8725.