What’s this Giving Tuesday thing, anyway?

By Katie Koncan, Senior Development Officer

Chances are, you’ve heard of Black Friday—the massive shopping day after American Thanksgiving in late November. Maybe you’ve even heard of Cyber Monday? (It’s the Monday following Black Friday when, you guessed it, a ton of online shopping and sales happen).

And then, there’s Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday was started in response to the mind-boggling levels of spending that occur from Black Friday thru Cyber Monday. It’s an international movement to promote charitable giving, and encourages us to take a moment to consider how we’re spending our hard-earned dollars. It’s a day for us to think, “how can I make a positive difference in my community?” (and maybe “I just got a great deal on 10 unicorn-shaped mugs, maybe that money could go toward some good”) This year, Giving Tuesday is on December 3.

The majority of us jump on these shopping sales, whip out our credit cards with abandon, and buy, buy, buy! And I get it—gifts need to be bought, and buying things is just fun sometimes. But what if we were that excited about things like helping people, supporting the environment, changing harmful inequalities, and building a more beautiful world?

It’s a lot harder to see the impact when you make your $25 donation. It’s not like that unicorn mug, all shiny and sparkly and waiting to be unboxed. But I can tell you: it makes a huge difference.

Let me give you a for instance. A few weeks ago, I was at a dialogue event with survivors of conversion therapy to discuss and plot how we can galvanize support to end it. At it, one participant came up to me, pulled me aside and said,

The amazing folks who’ve given to our crowdfunding campaign made that happen. That participant was flown across the country, and the chance to meet other survivors, and play an active role in launching work that is going to protect LGBTQ2+ folx like him. This is boundary-pushing, life-saving, law-changing work that’s happening, and this man got to be a part of it because of a bunch of people, just like you, gave $25 (or $10, or $50…).

So, Giving Tuesday. It’s around the corner. This year, I encourage you to think about how you can make a positive difference. Still buy all your gifts that’ll make your friends and family happy, but what about making a positive impact on a stranger’s life?

We have three key projects going right now, all related to public health that you can support:

• Funding new research and policy action that will impact the health and well-being of LGBTQ2S+ survivors of conversion therapy. Click here to donate.
• Directly supporting peers to take on overdose response, harm reduction, and anti-stigma work in their communities, while building their capacity to organize themselves. Donate to our reducing harms priority.
• Donate to help us find out if we can prevent childhood asthma. New research being conducted at the BCCDC is aimed at making sure generations of children can breathe easy. Donate to our addressing threats priority.

Not sure what you want to give towards, but just want to make sure we have good public health solutions? Donate to our Driving Innovation Fund.