153. Giving Tuesday Goes Global

This week let’s chat about Giving Tuesday going global and how you might plan your own Giving Tuesday this year!

Links from today’s episode:
Giving Tuesday campaigns from around the globe
https://www.givingtuesday.org/blog/global-leaders-local-movements/

ICYMI another episode you might enjoy:
Episode#105 Hosting a pop up giving circle for the holidays

Connect With Genet “GG” Gimja:
Website https://www.progressivepockets.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/prgrssvpckts

Work With Me:
Email progressivepockets@gmail.com for brand partnerships, business inquiries, and speaking engagements.

Easy Ways to Support the Show
1. Send this episode to someone you know! Word of mouth is how podcasts grow!
2. Buy me a coffee (or a soundproof panel!) https://buymeacoffee.com/progressivepockets 
3. Leave a 5 star rating and review for the show!

//NO AI TRAINING: Any use of this podcast episode transcript or associated show notes or blog posts to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. This includes, without limitation, technologies that are capable of generating works in the same style or genre as this content. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models//

Transcript

Welcome to Progressive Pockets! I go by GG, that’s short for Genet Gimja. This is a show about a source of power that I think we’re leaving on the table. I’m talking about our money. I think we’ve been led to believe that our money doesn’t really have any power, that billionaires are the only people who can change things around here with their money. And I don’t buy it. I think our money has power too. So that’s what this show is about.

One of the many things that comes up on this show is our giving. How we decide to donate our money, how much we decide to give, whether we talk about it or keep it to ourselves. How different communities in our country give their money away. 

And today’s episode is about Giving Tuesday going global! I’ll back up for a moment in case you’re not already familiar with the basics of Giving Tuesday.

It is a specific Tuesday every year in America, I know there are some listeners outside of the US that listen to this show, so I’ll just orient you a little in terms of our holidays here at the end of the year in America. We have Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November where we celebrate getting together with friends and family and reflect on what we’re grateful for, then the next day we celebrate consumerism and shop till we drop, and then on Saturday we have Small Business Saturday when we look at the pennies we have left and shop some more from small business owners, and then we rest on Sunday because even God took a day of rest, then we pick it back up on Monday for Cyber Monday when we buy our TVs and tablets and other gadgets, and then before we completely collapse, we have Giving Tuesday, and this is the day when we give to others. If you think the combination of hardcore capitalism mixed with hardcore gratitude and generosity is confusing, I want to welcome you to visit our beautiful country, this part of the calendar is a wild ride and yes it is just as wonderful and also just as confusing as it sounds.

Giving Tuesday was established in 2012 as a response to the consumerism surrounding the holidays I just described, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the idea behind Giving Tuesday was to create a day dedicated to charitable giving and volunteerism. 

Giving Tuesday was founded by the 92nd Street YMCA in New York City in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and the whole idea was to celebrate generosity and giving of our money and our time to help make this world a better place. Billions of dollars have been raised on Giving Tuesday through the years and that doesn’t count the millions of volunteer hours and non-monetary donations that have also been corralled on Giving Tuesday.

Another phenomenon of Giving Tuesday is how it has grown globally. It started in America but has grown to almost 100 countries! 

These are some of the countries participating in Giving Tuesday globally, this is not an exhaustive list but just to give you an idea…Tanzania India Brazil Greece Mexico Romania Barbados Taiwan Ukraine Pakistan Guam Italy Lebanon Senegal Poland Philippines Burkina Faso Côte d'Ivoire Cyprus Democratic Republic of Congo Eswatini North Macedonia Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom.

Each country has its own flavor.

Mexico: Runs #YoDonoPorque campaign, inviting people to share why they give. It overlaps with Mexico's Independence Day, connecting generosity to national identity

Romania: Hosts an eight-day "generosity festival" with suggested activities like blood donation and volunteering

Barbados: Organizes practical, physical celebrations like blood drives and children's book drives, catering to their large diaspora population.

Giving Tuesday is powerful because it is about collective giving, and with Giving Tuesday going global, it’s exciting to think about people cooperating globally on shared issues.

Giving Tuesday is only 12 years old and like a lot of teenagers I think it will grow and change in the coming years especially as I think about Gen Z and how they think about their giving.

So if you want to get in on this and participate in Giving Tuesday, you have some options:
If there’s a nonprofit you’ve been wanting to support, Giving Tuesday is a great day to give your inaugural donation to that group. You’ll be joining millions of people worldwide who are also taking similar actions around the world. Just thinking about that connectedness makes me feel really good.

You can give a donation to that charity you’ve been eyeing and you can even set it up as a recurring donation so that you automatically donate every month. That can be very helpful for nonprofits so they can plan into the future.

If your employer offers donation matching you can definitely apply that to your Giving Tuesday donations, and multiply the effect of your giving. In the same way you may be maxing out the employer match for your retirement accounts, you may also want to max out your employer match for donations. I remember giving to a really small nonprofit that was so personally meaningful to me, and I remember applying for the company match at my job and it just felt so amazing to have my employer cut that check and double my donation. It was such a small charity and I knew that every dollar made a difference.

So those are some ways you can participate in Giving Tuesday, but remember, it isn’t only about monetary donations, so if there’s something else that you can give, consider that too.

You may be in the phase of your career that you can provide some really valuable training or mentorship to people who are on your same path. That can be huge and Giving Tuesday can be the day you set that up.
Or you may have other non monetary things to give on this Giving Tuesday. The point is, it’s not too late to join this global movement.

So to recap, here’s what we covered today:
Giving Tuesday is about 12 years old and has grown to almost 100 countries around the world
There are a lot of ways to participate, you can donate once or set up a recurring donation. You can see about an employer match for your donation.
You can also give things other than money.

If you have more time today, here’s another episode to check out, that is episode 105 and the reason I’m suggesting it is because it’s also about this idea of giving as a group, joining a movement, or in the case of episode 105, it’s about forming your own pop up giving circle with people you know, to give collectively for the holidays.

Alright so if you’re feeling generous, don’t share all of this good stuff, share an episode with someone who you think might enjoy this show! Word of mouth is still how podcasts tend to grow.

Let’s end with a quote…
“There can be no greater gift than that of giving one's time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.” and that quote comes to us from Nelson Mandela.

Let’s talk again soon!