Some 400 UK-based charity and commercial partners have now signed up to #GivingTuesday – a global campaign to inspire charitable giving.
Launched in the US in 2012, the campaign was created as a chance for people to ‘give back’ after the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the two big festive shopping days after Thanksgiving.
Giving Tuesday falls on 2 December and in the UK the campaign is being run by the Charities Aid Foundation, which is running the campaign in the UK with the fundraising software company Blackbaud.
CAF said around three quarters of the partners signed up to promote and benefit from the campaign are charities, ranging from household names, including the NSPCC, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Cancer Research UK, Stonewall, Rethink and the RSPCA, to smaller organisations like Build Africa, Gorgie City Farm and Rosie’s Rainbow Fund, which support sick and disabled children.
The campaign has faced criticism from some quarters of the sector that it will not work in the UK.
Hannah Terrey, head of policy and campaigns at CAF, said: “If you watch how the campaign has grown over the last couple of years, it has become truly global.
“In answer to questions of will it work in the UK because we don’t have Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, although these shopping days are growing, you only have to look at other countries that have had huge successes. Last year it really took off in Canada, Australia, Israel and Latin America.
“But it still makes sense in this country to have a day for all parts of society and communities to come together and put the spotlight on charities and giving.
“We think it’ll be a fantastic opportunity to start off the festive season with a big, global conversation about giving and charity.”
The campaign’s partners are working to engage their supporters, customers and employees. Commercial partners are also wide-ranging and include companies like Facebook, BT, Legal & General and RBS. BT is giving charity partners the chance to auction seats at it BT Tower Dining Club for an event in January as part of its support.
Facebook is offering tips for charities on how to make the most of the campaign through their social media site. CAF and Blackbaud are also providing resources and tools for the organisations involved.
Charity, social enterprise and commercial partners are using Giving Tuesday's website to explain why they are taking part and as an opportunity to share their stories.
Rosie’s Rainbow Fund was set up in memory of Rosie Mayling (pictured), who died from a rare illness called Vasculitis, aged on 11 in 2003. Described as a “bright, colourful, musical little girl with a giving heart and a caring spirit”, she told her parents that when she got better she wanted to raise money for other sick children.
The charity supports seriously ill and disabled children and their families. Its entry on Giving Tuesday’s site says: “When we heard about Giving Tuesday UK we knew we had to find a way to be part of the movement. Dedicating an entire day to charitable giving and caring for others is a worthy goal, but for us it’s much more than that – it’s precisely what our charity is all about.
“Our organisation was founded to give life to a little girl’s wishes and to ensure that the principles of empathy, concern, and activism by which she lived were carried on.”
Hope for Children, which supports orphaned, poor, exploited and other marginalised children in developing countries and the UK, says #GTUK is an international platform that will help the charity reach out to communities around the world. “For a small organisation with big ambitions to help hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children in the next few years, #GTUK is the opportunity we need to realise this vision,” its entry says.
