Every November, along with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, there is another special day that is meaningful to those that care about spending time with those they care about and giving back to the community. While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are more so considered “consumer holidays”, Giving Tuesday is a special day that lands every Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year, Giving Tuesday fell on Nov. 30, and it is a national movement in which a number of international and national nonprofits participate to raise funds for their different organizations. This global day of giving started back in 2012, and has since generated more than 1.9 billion dollars for nonprofits all over the United States. 

Senior director of alumni engagement and annual giving, Tiffany O’Neil, mentioned that, “Sonoma State participates by inviting donors and alumni to donate in an effort to support SSU. The suggested place to give to is The Fund for Sonoma State, which supports various different programs and initiatives on campus. It is also part of our end-of-year solicitation and an opportunity for alumni to give back to the university”.

The money raised through the Sonoma State Fund is unrestricted, meaning that there isn’t a specific way in which the money needs to be used. The funds are mostly used for anything that is considered of “high priority” amongst the students. That being said, the usage always fluctuates. For example, it can be used for, “student basic needs, food, security, housing, and even the emergency care fund through ‘Associated Students’,” according to O’Neil.

According to the Giving Tuesday website, “The Giving Tuesday Data Commons estimates that 35 million adults participated in many ways on Giving Tuesday 2021 throughout the U.S., which is a 6% increase over 2020. Giving in the United States alone totaled $2.7 billion, representing a 9% increase compared to GivingTuesday 2020, and a 37% increase since 2019. With unprecedented levels of giving in 2020, these totals represent a significant continued trend of increased generosity.”

As mentioned previously, the event is focused on reaching communities all over the world. Giving comes in various forms, like the “pass the bread” campaign that allowed for one million loaves of bread to be donated in order to help with hunger in the Philippines. In Nepal, doctors and volunteers visited rural areas and offered eye and ear screening and checkups at no cost.  Whether it be monetary or by offering skill and overall willingness to help, events like this demonstrate that the special holiday is all about giving.

Larissa Hernandez, a student at SSU, expressed that she had recently learned of Giving Tuesday, and she is grateful that this movement was founded. “I think it’s pretty nice that this global movement exists. I honestly had never heard of it before this year. But I like that it comes after some hectic times, like all the shopping. Especially this year with all those “smash-and-grabs” at the stores, it’s good to see people giving back and participating in acts of kindness. Also, since not everyone gets to be around family for the holidays this year, it’s a great way for people to get their minds off of that.”

Stephanie Bautista, also a student at SSU, said she’d wished she’d known about the event ahead of time. “I think it would be nice to be more involved in a day like that. If I had known earlier, I definitely would have wanted to participate.”

While Giving Tuesday was only founded in 2012, it’s not uncommon that it takes some time to fully get off of the ground. However, Sonoma State aims to educate students and faculty about this special day, and encourages them to help out where they can. If anyone would like to give back and participate on this special, national holiday, they can do so by visiting givingtuesday.org. On this website, interested donors can access the resource tab and download the “toolkit for individuals”. This kit has dozens of ideas of which one can choose to do so in order to give back. It ranges from volunteering at local organizations, teaching a specific set of skills to people, donating to an organization of choice, or just simply speeding kindness and checking in amongst friends and neighbors.