It’s ‘Giving Tuesday’

“Giving Tuesday” takes place on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Giving Tuesday was created to help the “giving season” get started, reminding people that there is more to holidays than shopping and indulging. Giving Tuesday is organized and celebrated each year with the simple aim of encouraging individuals, families, schools, businesses, and other organizations to give to the less fortunate.

The History of Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 when two organizations, the 92nd Street Y in New York and the United Nations Foundation came together. Their intention was to set aside a day that was all about celebrating the generosity of giving, a great American tradition.

Many leaders in the areas of social media, philanthropy and grassroots quickly joined in, and together they created a group of founding partners including United Nations Foundation, Cisco, Mashable, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Sony, Aldo, Groupon, UNICEF, Google, Skype, Microsoft and Unilever. The first announcement about Giving Tuesday was made through Mashable, a technology website.

The first Giving Tuesday was covered extensively by the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, ABC News, Deseret News and the White House official blog, causing the scheme to gain an enormous amount of popularity in a short period of time.

A year later, in 2013, even more organizations joined in, including eBay (which gives a percentage of all its sales proceeds from a week in December to Giving Tuesday) and fashion designer Kevin Cole, who both designed and promoted awareness ID bracelets, giving 100% of the proceeds to Giving Tuesday.

To determine the most generous states, WalletHub compared them based on 13 key metrics. The data set ranges from “volunteer rate” to “percentage of income donated” to “percentage of sheltered homeless.”

Key Stats

• Utah has the highest volunteer rate, 39.3 percent, 2.1 times higher than in Florida, which has the lowest at 18.3 percent.
• Utah has the highest percentage of donated income, 6.61 percent, 3.6 times higher than in New Hampshire, which has the lowest at 1.85 percent.
• Utah has the highest percentage of the population who claim to have           donated time, 56 percent, 1.9 times higher than in Kentucky, which has the lowest at 30 percent.
• Maryland has the highest percentage of taxpayers who donated money to charity, 38.2 percent, 3.1 times higher than in West Virginia, which has the lowest at 12.3 percent.
• Utah has the most volunteering hours per capita, 75.6, 3.7 times more than in Kentucky, which has the fewest at 20.7.
• Vermont has the most public charities per capita, 27.07, 4.5 times more than in Nevada, which has the fewest at 6.05.

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-charitable-states/8555/

American Humane, the country’s first national humane organization and the first to serve since 1877 in the protection of animals, is participating in this global day of giving back and is encouraging animal lovers to double their impact through a two-for-one matching grant up to $200,000, thanks to a generous gift from internationally renowned philanthropist Lois Pope, a longtime supporter of American Humane.

Animal lovers can double their impact by donating to American Humane during a special two-for-one matching grant challenge! The organization’s goal is to raise $15,000 in just 24 hours. Contributions made on #GivingTuesday will support their work providing lifesaving help for animals during natural disasters, preventing animal cruelty, finding ways to help more of the 6-8 million animals relinquished to shelters each year, saving lives at both ends of the leash by training shelter dogs to be service dogs for veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress, and so much more.

To help, click here: and share American Humane’s #GivingTuesday goals with friends on Twitter and other social media platforms. Remember to tag @AmericanHumane and use the global hashtag #GivingTuesday to be part of the conversation.