What Do You Think of Giving Tuesday?

I’ve gone on record with why I hate Giving Tuesday but I’m curious to know what others thought. Were you bombarded with appeals? Were any of them good? Did you volunteer or get involved in a different way? If so, what was your experience?

While I saw a lot of unthoughtful, “latch on to something even thought I don’t know why” activity, there were some good things going on as well. For example Vittana used #GivingTuesday to help launch a new initiative in Kenya on a new fundraising platform (for them). On top of that, they added some “incentives” like a special offer on a t-shirt.

You might be wondering if incentives like this are damaging and fall into the “slacktivism” debate or consumerism philanthropy a la AmazonSmile but this is different because it is about adding value to the donor in exchange for value to the charity. Vittana is adding some urgency and incentive but the donor still has to part with their resources making the act more meaningful to them and ultimately to the charity.

A campaign I’m working on at Charity Express for our sister company, Chimp, also used Giving Tuesday to launch an initiative. #GiveOn encourages people to give to any cause, fee free (thanks to a partnership with HootSuite). Again, Chimp was attaching itself to a movement but they are adding to the momentum, or trying to, by adding more value and incentive to the mix.

Really interested to know what others think of “our day” to date.