What is GivingTuesday? How to donate on the annual day of charitable giving

Since it started as a hashtag in 2012, Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has become one of the biggest fundraising days of the year for nonprofits in the U.S.

In 2022 and 2023, Giving Tuesday raised $3.1 billion for charitable organizations, according to estimates from Giving Tuesday.

This year, Giving Tuesday is on Dec. 3. Melinda French Gates announced plans to match up to $1 million in gifts to two nonprofit organizations to help spur more gifts on the day.

How did Giving Tuesday start?

The #GivingTuesday hashtag started as a project of the 92nd Street Y in New York in 2012 and became an independent organization in 2020. It’s grown into a worldwide network of local organizations that promote giving in their communities, often on different dates that have local relevance, like holidays.

Now, Giving Tuesday, the nonprofit, also convenes researchers working on topics about everyday giving. It also collects data from a wide range of sources like payment processors, crowdfunding sites, employee giving software and institutions that offer donor-advised funds, a kind of charitable giving account.

What is the purpose of Giving Tuesday?

The hashtag was started to promote generosity and the nonprofit continues to promote giving in the broadest sense.

For nonprofits, the point of Giving Tuesday is to raise money and engage their supporters. Many will be familiar with the barrage of email and mail appeals that coincide on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Essentially all major American nonprofits will organize fundraising campaigns and many smaller, local groups also participate.

Nonprofits don’t have to be affiliated in any way with Giving Tuesday, the organization, to run a fundraising campaign. They can just do it, though Giving Tuesday does provide graphics and advice. In that way, it remains a grassroots effort with groups and donors participating however they like.

Has Giving Tuesday been successful?

That depends on how success is measured, but it certainly has grown far beyond the initial effort to promote giving on social media. The day has become an enduring and well-known event that seeks to center charitable giving, volunteering and civic participation in the U.S. and around the world.

For years, Giving Tuesday has been a major focus of fundraising for nonprofits, with many seeking to organize matching donations from major donors and to leverage their networks of supporters to contribute. It is the beginning of the end-of-year fundraising rush, as nonprofits seek to reach their budget targets for the following year.

Donations on Giving Tuesday in 2022 and 2023 reached $3.1 billion, an increase from $2.7 billion in 2021. While that’s a lot to raise in a single day, the trend last year was flat and with fewer donors giving, which the organization said is a worrying sign.