*By Chloe Aiello and Christian Smith* When Asha Curran helped the 92nd Street Y dream up Giving Tuesday in 2012, she hoped at least 100 nonprofits would participate. She never could have imagined that six years later, it would become a global day of giving and charitable acts across more than 150 countries worldwide. Curran, chief innovation officer of the New York City-based cultural center, spoke with Cheddar on Giving Tuesday 2018 to discuss just how far the day has come. Last year, people in more than 150 countries participated in Giving Tuesday, raising a combined $300 million dollars through approximately 2.5 million online gifts. The hashtag #GivingTuesday also made about 21.7 million impressions last year. Curran said the day, founded jointly by 92nd Street Y and The United Nations Foundation, began in 2012 as a push-back against the materialism of Black Friday. "Black Friday and Cyber Monday are amazing for the retail sector. People make a lot of money, people get a lot of good deals and then there should be an opportunity to think about what we can give backー to our community, to our planet, to our fellow humans," she said. In Giving Tuesday's first year, 2,500 charitable organizations participated to raise about $10 million online. Since then, it's become about much more than donating. Last year, she said the organization received a photo of children from the slums of Nairobi who were participating in Giving Tuesday. Despite having so little, the children came together to paint rocks with messages of goodwill and hope and then hid them for others to find. "It doesn't even have to be about money. It doesn't have to be about having a lot. Our belief is really that every single person has something to give," Curran said. One group with less to give than their predecessors is millennials. Despite being handed "kind of a problematic world," as Curran put it, they still manage to come out in force for charity. "For Giving Tuesday, millennials are really generous. They tend to sign up more for recurring monthly giving. They might have fewer dollars to give, again because they're paying off student loans and whatnot, but they are giving in whatever capacity they feel that they are able to," she said. This year, companies like PayPal ($PYPL), Facebook ($FB) and JetBlue ($JBLU) stepped up their giving game. PayPal and Facebook partnered to [match select donations](https://cheddar.com/videos/sophia-bush-and-paypal-partner-for-fire-relief-on-givingtuesday), but announced fairly early on Tuesday that they had already reached their quotas. JetBlue flew a plane of "do-gooders" to the Dominican Republic on Tuesday as part of its Destination Good campaign. JetBlue customers were encouraged to enter the "JetBlue Check In For Good" contest in October with the chance to volunteer in an undisclosed location alongside JetBlue staff and partners. As many as 50 winners were flown to the Dominican Republic on Giving Tuesday ー JetBlue kept the location a secret until Tuesday morning. They'll stay through Friday to help with projects, like restoring a school for children with disabilities, constructing a play-space for children, and restoring coral reefs off the nation's coast. The campaign is meant to highlight the airline's year-round commitment to corporate social responsibility, JetBlue's Irma Arizmendi told Cheddar on Tuesday. "It's really just a part of the DNA, the fabric [of JetBlue]," Arizmendi said. "We really wanted to focus and give our customers and community an opportunity to see what we do year round."
