After the frenzy of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events has passed, GivingTuesday shifts the focus and kicks off the end-of-year giving season. Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving in the United States, it’s a day of philanthropy fueled by the power of harnessing collective generosity around the world.

Since its inaugural year in 2012, GivingTuesday has become a movement that celebrates giving with a growing catalog of ways to get involved. An estimated 34 million US adults participated in 2023, giving a total of $3.1 billion.

As a founding member of GivingTuesday, GlobalGiving continues to help the GivingTuesday movement grow, including by guiding companies on how to incorporate GivingTuesday into their corporate social responsibility and employee engagement strategies.

As Dec. 3 approaches, here are four simple ways to engage employees and clients this GivingTuesday:

1. Spread generosity with charitable gift cards.

Giving employees the opportunity to support causes they choose is more satisfying than receiving a bonus, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review. Your company could offer employees and clients a charitable gift card and encourage them to donate beyond the value of the gift on GivingTuesday.

• Give GlobalGiving Gift Cards, redeemable toward more than 7,000 charitable projects in 175+ countries, to employees or customers. GlobalGiving offers reporting on gift card redemption, so your company can gain insight into what your employees and clients are most passionate about to better inform future corporate giving.
• Use gift cards as an incentive! For example, give a charitable gift card to the first 1,000 employees who donate to a nonprofit on GivingTuesday. See how other companies have used gift cards in innovative and meaningful ways for their employees.

2. Design a custom giving page.

Creating a unique site for your employees to donate to a suite of nonprofit organizations (maybe organizations they choose!) can improve the giving experience and boost engagement.

• Giving pages can be customized with unique images, language, and featured projects of your choice.
• GlobalGiving builds customized giving pages for companies, which enable employees to donate to thousands of vetted organizations around the world, or to nominate their favorite nonprofit organizations and have their donations matched.
• You can track engagement with your giving page, including number of donations, total dollars donated, and donation recipients. That can help your company gain insight into what matters most to employees and clients and guide your CSR strategy.

3. Launch a matching campaign.

Your company can amplify the impact of employee and client donations by offering a match donation for GivingTuesday. You could structure a match in different ways:

• 1:1 match: Donate a dollar for every dollar an employee or client donates, doubling the impact of the original gift.
• Double or triple the impact: For this special day, offer a 2:1 or 3:1 match for every dollar an employee or client donates.
• Timebound match: To encourage giving, offer a match for a period of 24 hours only on GivingTuesday.
• Additional corporate donation: Make an additional corporate donation to the project that receives the most funding via a landing page or gift card redemption on GivingTuesday.

4. Spread the word about GivingTuesday.

Create a media kit, including press releases and social media posts outlining how your company engages with GivingTuesday. Tell the story of your company’s commitment to spreading generosity.

• Make it part of a giving challenge that goes beyond monetary donations to include giving time, help, or encouragement in the workplace or community.
• Invite employees to share why giving is important to them or why they give to a particular cause or nonprofit organization.

Interested in taking action to engage employees on GivingTuesday?

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Featured Photo: 30 goats to 30 Women of rural Balawoli by Thread of life women empowerment ministries