Image courtesy of Huffington PostAfter the post-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, comes Giving Tuesday.
Instead of lining up for great deals on over-priced electronics and gifts for your friends and family, Giving Tuesday is a chance for you to give back and be selfless. It’s a day of tax-deductible charitable sharing, giving, volunteering, and making a real difference for those less fortunate, or for the organizations that support causes that make the world a better place.
Giving Tuesday started in 2012 by Henry Timms, chief executive officer (CEO) of the 92Y: Cultural Institution and Community Center, to remind shoppers this the holidays are a time of giving, not just getting.
The season of giving has become increasingly more about shopping rather than doing good, so nonprofits helped to grow the idea of giving back in the midst of holiday sales, turning 92Y’s Giving Tuesday into a full-blown social tradition that is currently promoted by thousands of nonprofit and charitable organizations.
In 2012 alone, Giving Tuesday saw participation from 2,500 organizations and processed almost $10 million dollars in donations. A 53% increase from the previous year’s donations, and saw an almost 25% increase in the average gift amount.
This year Tech Impact’s ITWorks is taking part in the social movement that in 2012 saw nearly 50 million interactions on twitter and other social media sites.
ITWorks is a program dedicated to helping individuals develop IT skills, raise their job prospects, and increase their earning potential for their entire life. ITWorks targets urban youth who are otherwise unable to advance in a professional environment due to a lack of marketable skills and experience. ITWorks steps in to fill that void, jettisoning participants to a career in the IT world.
Help Tech Impact’s ITWorks program get a head start in 2014 by contributing.
