With events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday right around the corner, sometimes it’s tough to remember to give back.
That’s where Giving Tuesday comes in.
Giving Tuesday is a movement where charities, companies and individuals rally behind causes and think about others heading into the giving season.
Central Alberta Gives, a group of local non-profit organizations, has promoted Giving Tuesday since 2015.
It’s important to draw attention to Giving Tuesday on Nov. 28, said Pam Snowden, executive director Volunteer Central - one of the organizations in Central Alberta Gives.
“It’s a day to remind us to think about philanthropy and giving to causes during the giving season,” said Snowden.
A big component of Giving Tuesday is using social media to spread the message, Snowden said.
“We can reach a lot of people through social media. Individual people can give too by creating their own campaign. You don’t have to be a business or organization, you can just be an individual who wants to create awareness,” she said.
Each organization participating in Giving Tuesday may tackle the day differently, Snowden said.
“We all came together as a working group to drive the campaign last year, but different organizations did different things on that day.
“I used it for an awareness day rather than a fundraising day, but a place like Red Deer College had a special lunch for to raise money to help students in need,” she said.
Last year Volunteering Central and students from the Donald School of Business went to businesses around Red Deer, explained what Giving Tuesday is all about and helped them take an “unselfie” to post on social media.
Snowden said last year was a success, but it’s difficult to quantify how it helped the area. A goal for this year’s Giving Tuesday is to find a way to rate its success by numbers.
Nationally there was a 28 per cent increase in new monthly donors from 2015 to 2016 on Giving Tuesday, according to CanadaHelps.
Snowden said it’s important to not get caught up in retail messages that are so prevalent in the world today.
“I love shoes as much as the next gal, so I always get excited about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. But it’s cold out there and kids are going hungry so we need to not get so caught up in some of these other messages and open our wallets to other people in the community,” she said.
For more information visit www.givingtuesday.ca/partners/central-alberta-gives.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter