I was at the gym this week, watching the evening news as I pounded away on the treadmill. First results were coming in from Cyber Monday, which by 6 p.m. was already looking to outstrip last year’s 24-hour online buying spree by more than 50 percent.
Add that to Gray Thursday, the crepuscular fog that spills over into Black Friday’s retail frenzy, and it’s clear that the American economy is in full recovery — at least when it comes to Christmas shopping.
Which is why #GivingTuesday is so welcome: an entire day dedicated to charitable giving, a partial corrective (atonement, perhaps) for the post-Thanksgiving shopping orgy that has become an unfortunate tradition in this country.
A lovely thing about GivingTuesday (this year on Dec. 3) is that it emerged from a Jewish institution: The 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, whose deputy executive director, Henry Timms, thought up the idea last year as a social media campaign that would kick off the holiday season of giving. Contrasting the day with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Timms told Bloomberg News in November 2012, “We have two days that are good for the economy; here’s a new day good for the soul.”
That first GivingTuesday, spearheaded by the Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, spread quickly across real and virtual social networks as Americans answered the call to open their hearts and their wallets. With an original goal of 50 partnering organizations, the network grew to more than 2,000 in its first year. They ranged from retail giants like JCPenney to social causes including the Salvation Army and United Way to local nonprofits in all 50 states. A host of Jewish organizations got into the swing early on, including American Jewish World Service, the Jewish National Fund, JCCs, Jewish family service agencies, most of the Jewish denominations, and Jewish federations large and small.
And who raised the most money on GivingTuesday 2012? The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, which attracted a cool $1 million in online donations. What was interesting is that the federation combined new and old fundraising methods. People could give via the federation’s website, and they also were solicited by volunteers at an all-day phonathon set up at federation headquarters.
Everyone got into the act. People who didn’t want to make calls were given the task of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the others.
For this year’s GivingTuesday, the Baltimore federation took part in a citywide effort to raise $5 million for local charities. It hoped to raise even more money than last year.
Closer to home, a number of Jewish institutions in the Bay Area took part in GivingTuesday 2013.
The JCC of San Francisco invited volunteers to gather in the main atrium to put together backpacks of essential supplies for distribution to the homeless. The packs contained hygiene kits, food, cold-weather clothing and school supplies, as well as handmade holiday cards created by children in the JCC’s preschool program.
The Jewish Federation of the East Bay devoted its GivingTuesday efforts to raising online donations for Shalom Bayit, the Bay Area Jewish community’s hub for domestic violence prevention and education. The goal was to raise $5,000 to help battered women and their children rebuilt their lives.
The Peninsula JCC and Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley also registered as formal partners in this year’s efforts, which drew more than 10,000 partners nationwide and around the world.
Some institutions use the publicity generated by the day to enhance their own fundraising, which doesn’t seem to be in keeping with the spirit of the
project — unless the organization is something like a Jewish family service agency and the money is going to provide actual human services. See, GivingTuesday isn’t just about giving money — it’s about tzedakah, or restoring justice to a broken world.
So if you gave this past Tuesday, good for you. If you didn’t, give now. It’s a great new tradition, and one that need not be limited to just one day a year.