If you are starting to think about Giving Tuesday Philanthropy Examples, you’ve come to the right place! One could argue it’s too soon to start thinking about giving and volunteering this holiday season, yet we know how quickly it comes. Now is a great time for companies to review their initiatives and get something set up by November to give by Giving Tuesday!

First, let’s check out a few holiday giving facts! 

• Did you know that 50% of nonprofits receive the majority of their annual donations in the last 3 months of the year? It’s true! This is mentioned by Global Giving’s 4 Ways For Your Company to Get into the Holiday Spirit.  
• Going further, 30% of donations happen in December! Moreover, 10% of giving occurs in the last 3 days of the year! That’s 10% of giving in less than 1% of the days in the year! Mentioned in Online Fundraising Today: Tis the Season: Nonprofits and Holiday Giving 

As you can see, this is such an important time for nonprofit fundraising. Many nonprofits create campaigns during this time to help raise awareness & love corporate holiday giving partners! Whether individual campaigns or part of the larger Giving Tuesday campaign, there is a lot going on around the holidays.

With so much momentum, the last quarter of the year is a great time to get your team involved in giving back!  PaySimple has a quick review of 7 GivingTuesday Ideas for Small Businesses which includes giving time, talent, and treasure (dollars)!

Next, we’ll take a look at what is Giving Tuesday, a few giving strategies around corporate holiday giving & Giving Tuesday, and how to double your team’s impact with Matching Gifts & Donations. 

What is GIVING TUESDAY

Founded by the 92nd Street Y in NYC,  #GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good.  It takes place on the Tuesday following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year it falls on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022, and has become one of the biggest giving days of the year.

The impact in the US from GivingTuesday has been enormous!

In 2021:

• The GivingTuesday Data Commons estimates that 35 million adults participated in the U.S. — a 6% increase over 2020.
• Giving in the United States alone totaled $2.7 billion representing a 9% increase compared to GivingTuesday 2020 — or a 37% increase since 2019.

From 2020:

• $2.47 Billion in donations were given in the US on #GivingTuesday 2020, a 25% increase over 2019
• 33 million adults or 13% of the US adult population participated. That’s a 23% increase from 2019
• In response to the critical need generated by COVID-19, an emergency initiative also took place on May 5, 2020. This #GivingTuesdayNow helped generate over $500 Million

Giving Tuesday Philanthropy Examples

At Selflessly, one customer, Gene B. Glick Company, has some pretty awesome company philanthropy ideas! The Glick team gives a special bonus on Giving Tuesday for employees participating in their corporate holiday giving program.

“At Glick, we strive to strengthen the quality of life in all communities where Glick properties are located. One way we do this is by empowering our team members to give back to the causes that are important to them” said Ben Grande, Corporate Social Responsibility manager at the Gene B. Glick Company. “Our charitable contribution match program, Glick Gives, offers dollar for dollar matching throughout the year, but a special three-to-one match on Giving Tuesday and two-to-one match during our annual Double in December campaign. We know how much our nonprofit partners count on year-end giving to sustain their operations which is why we offer increased matching opportunities for our team members.”

Selflessly is proud to partner with this selfless team! Since 2015, the Glick Gives program has matched more than $525,000 in team member contributions. This includes $180,000 in 2020 in response to the pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice. It seems the feeling is mutual from Ben Grande & the Glick Team: 

“We are thrilled to begin working with Selflessly to take our CSR efforts to the next level and house our various CSR activities under one roof” said Grande. For more information on the Glick Company’s CSR efforts, click here.

For extra philanthropy examples, you can learn more about how companies participate in GivingTuesday in the GivingTuesday Toolkit for Brands & Companies. This resource is great to help demonstrate to your leadership how to involve employees giving back. Also why your brand should have a give back strategy in place!

How Your Team Can Ride the Momentum of GivingTuesday!

Regardless of how advanced your employee giving and volunteering program is, you can ride the wave of #GivingTuesday. Check out ways to increase your team’s participation in giving back.

GivingTuesday mentions, you and your team can:

• Organize a team volunteer event
• Organize baskets with Thanksgiving dinner for families in your community
• Commit to sponsoring families for the holidays
• Match donations that consumers make to a specific charity or cause that aligns with your CSR strategy
• Donate a portion of sales on GivingTuesday to a small BIPOC-led organization 
• If appropriate, give product
• Commit to donating pro bono time/expertise to a nonprofit 

All of these are great philanthropy examples of ways to involve your team! In addition, there are many stats that GivingTuesday provides. Workplace volunteering can reduce employee turnover up to 50%! Even more, 80% of customers are willing to pay extra for a product / service when seeing a brand’s social values! According to the HR Technologist, 82% of employees would like to volunteer with their colleagues in events that you support as a company and  shared 4 tips on engaging your employees on GivingTuesday:

1. Focus on micro-donations from every employee
2. Highlight instances of exceptional generosity in the workplace
3. Launch a new CSR program on GivingTuesday with participation from employees
4. Leverage your employer brand to get the word out what corporate values

Matching Donations & Gifts – The Most Popular

One statistic, we want to really call out  — between $4-7 BILLION in matching gifts goes unused every year according to Double The Donation (DTD)!  These are dollars already set aside by companies allocated to give to nonprofits! Imagine the good that can be done if those funds are put to good use!!

DTD does mentions that $2-3 Billion dollars are donated through matching, yet that still leaves a lot of room for increasing social impact.

What is the reason for this huge number? Great question!

First, this is the most popular form of corporate philanthropy. Companies with matching gift initiatives match the dollar amount of funds given by employees to eligible charities and nonprofits. Two examples: 

• A company may have a matching gift policy for employees who donate to their preferred food pantry and will match up to a dollar amount
• Companies with such programs typically set parameters on the amount being donated, e.g., matching gifts up to $500
• They could create a group incentive, e.g., if employees together raise $3,000 toward a particular cause, then the company will match the amount raised.

Second, many employees don’t use the matching gifts they have been given! This is because they forget or think the process is too burdensome to get the match. Our advice to leaders, make the process easier and remind the employees they have money to match!

Let’s work together to decrease unused matching gifts and continue to make an impact on the world! At Selflessly we have a goal to help get these matching gifts allocated to nonprofits!

In Conclusion: Launch Your Program Today!

As September comes to an end, and with the holidays right around the corner, there is no better time to launch your Corporate Holiday Giving program. Yep, the summary stands! Now is the time to launch an Employee Giving & Volunteering Program! 

Shout out to our team, this is what we do every day! Selflessly can help make your entire workplace giving program easier! Including getting matching gifts distributed with ease 😊