GivingTuesday, the nonprofit behind the annual day of giving on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, plans a “global day of giving and unity” on May 5 as an emergency response to the COVID-19 virus. #GivingTuesdayNow is “designed to drive an influx of generosity, citizen engagement, business and philanthropy activation, and support for communities and nonprofits around the world.”
Like #GivingTuesday, #GivingTuesdayNow is not just about asking for or making a donation. People can show their generosity by helping a neighbor, advocating for an issue or sharing a skill — it’s about emphasizing opportunities to give back to communities and causes in ways that “comply with public health guidelines.”
GivingTuesday also is committing $200,000 to launch The Starling Fund, to support its existing network of official community and country leaders. Priority will go to leaders in the regions of greatest crisis or lowest resource to strengthen their #GivingTuesdayNow initiatives.
More than $2 billion was raised in the United States alone, including $511 million online, during this past #GivingTuesday, on Dec. 3. The additional giving day planned for May 5 is being deployed in response to needs expressed by communities and leaders around the world.
“For eight years, #GivingTuesday has celebrated grassroots generosity, and has built a movement that empowers millions of people to give, engage their communities, and find common ground,” said Rob Reich, faculty co-director of the Stanford University Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society and chairman of the board of GivingTuesday. “We are all confronting the same challenge right now, we need to giving spirit more than ever.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and PayPal already are actively responding to COVID-19 and additional partners include the United Nations Foundation, an original #GivingTuesday co-founder that’s running the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Also confirmed at the CDC Foundation, Facebook, LinkedIn, Guardian News and Media, the Aga Khan Foundation, United Way Worldwide, Candid, The Communications Network, Global Impact, Philanthropy Together, Teach for All, Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), with NBC News and MSNBC returning as GivingTuesday’s signature media partner.
“As a global community, we can mourn this moment of extreme crisis while also finding the opportunity to support one another,” GivingTuesday CEO Asha Curran. “We each have the power to make an impact with acts of generosity, no matter how small, and to ensure the sustainability of organizations and services that are crucial to the care and support of our communities,” she said.
“#GivingTuesdayNow is a chance for us to stand united and use grassroots generosity to show that we are all in this together, beginning to end. Even as many face financial uncertainty, generosity is not about size,” Curran said. “Every act of kindness is not only a beacon of hope, it’s a critical act of civic and social solidarity.”
