First, it was Black Friday. Then came Cyber Monday. Then Small Business Saturday became a thing. Holiday shopping events are a marketing team's holy grail, an opportunity to change consumer behavior writ large that doesn't come around very often.
Enter Giving Tuesday, the most recent of the holiday shopping holidays ー though this one is all about altruism. Started in 2012 by the New York nonprofit 92nd Street Y, in partnership with the UN Foundation, the movement has grown to become a de facto response to the consumerism that surrounds the holiday season, in which companies and non-profits urge people to donate money or time to charity ー at least for a day.
According to predictions from the data firm Whole Whale, #GivingTuesday, as it's known online, is expected to top $500 million for the first time, a 25 percent increase from the estimated $400 million that was donated online last year. Still, that haul represents less than 14 percent of the amount of money that will be spent online on Tuesday, according to Adobe Analytics data.
Save the Children, the 100-year-old charity that works to help disadvantaged kids in 120 countries, is among the nonprofits that looks to Giving Tuesday for a portion of its annual fundraising. CEO Carolyn Miles told Cheddar in an interview that millennials still have limited awareness of the day. Save the Children is trying to leverage its relationships with brands and celebrities to spread the word on its social media accounts (and to broadcast that it is matching all donations, 1:1, on Tuesday).
The charity has partnered with red-hot designers like Gabriela Hearst, who is donating 100 percent of the net proceeds from her handbag sales to Save the Children's efforts in Yemen. Those handbags are typically only available by invite, though Hearst is opening the collection to the public this week to spur donations. There are also partnerships with Dave Matthews Band, Jennifer Garner, and the shoe brand Toms.
Many people who give want their donations to help "closer to home," Miles said, noting that Save the Children also works in impoverished communities in the U.S. as well as "all the toughest places to be a child in the world."
The charity counts on the last few weeks of the year for nearly a third of its donations, she said, which is why the awareness around Giving Tuesday is particularly important. Save the Children has an operational budget of $2.2 billion ー equivalent to the entire budget of the newly created U.S. Space Force over the next five years. Last year, it brought in a half-million dollars, the latest in a number that has been "growing every year," though it is still a fraction of the overall budget. The rest comes from corporations, foundations, individual donors and grants from the UN, she said.
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Chuck Marino CEO of the consultancy Sentinel Security Solutions, joined Cheddar News to discuss some of his insights into what law enforcement will be looking to do next in the search for the suspect in Tuesday's mass shooting on a Brooklyn subway train. "They're going to be relying to a certain extent on tips coming from the public as well as witnesses that were present this morning when the incident took place," he noted.
David Katz, a former federal agent with the Department of Justice, and currently founder, CEO, and owner of Global Security Group, joined Cheddar News to talk about the Tuesday mass shooting on a subway train in Brooklyn, N.Y. even as local authorities have so far stated it was not being investigated as a potential terrorist attack. "At this point between the commissioner of the NYPD and the governor of New York, they're almost saying, 'well, it's an active shooter incident.' Okay, but active shooter incidents can also be motivated by terrorism, so until we know motive, we can't make that conclusion at all," Katz said.
Fresh off of the CMT Awards, country singer Mickey Guyton joined Cheddar News to talk about the state of Black and women artists in country music, past and upcoming projects, and her partnership with 3M for its school zone safety initiative for National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. “Now that I’m a mom, I always wondered why my mom was so crazy over us, but now I get it” Guyton said. “I hope that drivers start driving undistracted, like put our phones down! Pay attention to signs. When you see children slow down and make sure that they're safe."
