So, did you accomplish all of your holiday shopping this weekend between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, as-yet-unnamed Sunday (Shopping Sunday? Spendy Sunday?), and Cyber Monday, and still leave a little in the coffers to donate on Giving Tuesday? If you answered yes, then I applaud both your conscientiousness and your budgeting (and your ability to finish your Christmas shopping before, well, Christmas Eve). But I’m guessing more of you replied, “What’s Giving Tuesday?”

Giving Tuesday is a day of philanthropy created by the 92^nd Street Y in New York as a day during the holiday season to shift our thinking from shopping and our own wish lists to nonprofits that would benefit immensely from the $30 you were planning to spend on your nephew’s DVD player.  Giving Tuesday urges you to channel your consumerism guilt into meaningful donations to your favorite nonprofits in your community. For those of you reading this in Seattle, think of it as GiveBIG while wearing a sweater instead of shorts.

The holiday features a concerted social media effort (#givingtuesday on Twitter) and lots of press coverage (here, here, and here, for example). The country is getting excited about a national effort to push giving at the end of the year (a crucial time for nonprofit fundraising), and at the chance to speak to younger donors via the social media channels they frequent (as opposed to sending out another mail appeal to sit atop the growing stack on everyone’s kitchen table right now). Nearly every mention of Giving Tuesday I’ve read features the fear-inducing Blackbaud statistic that the average donor age is 65 and counting, and the huge opportunity social giving like Giving Tuesday provides to engage younger donors.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I heard about this just a few days ago, and I WORK in fundraising. I’m wondering: We’ve seen a lot of posts from our nonprofit friends and clients today urging donors to give, but has it worked? Did you have enough lead-up to Giving Tuesday to result in a day of meaningful donations to your organization? What have you done to get your donors excited about giving today? What can we do next year as a nonprofit community in the Northwest to rally donors and make Giving Tuesday as big as GiveBIG?

Or, I suppose, you could always ask your nephew to donate that DVD player you bought him to your favorite nonprofit. Then we’ll really see how the younger generation feels about generosity during the holidays…

Original post can be found here: http://collinsgroup.com/events/giving-tuesday-has-it-worked/.