GivingTuesday CEO talks about campaign, younger donors

In the past 10 years, charities have made splashy fundraising appeals and raked in billions in donations on GivingTuesday, which takes place the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Last year, American donors gave nearly $2.5 billion amid growing needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation's racial reckoning. How much money will flood into charities this Tuesday is anyone's guess.

The giving campaign was launched in 2012 as a way to get people to donate to charity at a time when they were already spending money on the holiday shopping season. The 92nd Street Y, a community center in New York City, came up with the idea and developed it until two years ago, when a separate organization called GivingTuesday took up the mantle to organize the giving day.

Charities typically host fundraisers, events, and use the hashtag on social media to garner donations, which have increased throughout the years. But it's not a fundraising day — it’s a generosity movement, said Asha Curran, the CEO of the organization that promotes the campaign.

Curran says people are gearing up to participate in ways that don't involve giving money. For example, she says more than 40,000 young people worldwide have indicated to GivingTuesday's youth-oriented GivingTuesdaySpark program they're doing “acts of giving and acts of kindness” on Tuesday.

The AP recently talked with her about the campaign, younger donors and other things. The interview was edited for clarity and length.

____

Q: The campaign is marking its 10th year. Do you feel like it’s accomplishing what it initially set out to do?

A: I think it’s accomplishing a great deal more than it set out to do. In 2012, the idea was really a relatively simple one: a hashtag to encourage people to think about giving back after two days of...