Get ready to add another name to the ever-growing list of post Thanksgiving holiday shopping season days — Giving Tuesday.

While not as widely recognized as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday might just be the best day of them all in terms of community impact.

Whereas Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday focus on buying, #GivingTuesday is a one-day charitable promotion aimed at using social media and collaboration to celebrate and support philanthropy across the globe.

If you have not heard of #GivingTuesday — that’s OK.

According to givingtuesday.org, it was created four years ago by 92nd Street Y — a cultural center in New York City that, since 1874, has been bringing people together around the values of service and giving back.

Since launching the campaign, #GivingTuesday has more than 30,000 partners in 68 countries, including small businesses, nonprofits, government agencies and major corporations.

The effort has resulted in an estimated 470 percent increase in online donations on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving since 2012.

That is great to hear, since so many people and charitable organizations are in need at this time of year.

So how can you get involved?

The website givingtuesday.org has a wide variety of free tools and resources that can help you connect with charities both near and far. You can even plan your own giving initiative using the toolkits provided on the website.

We encourage all of our readers to get involved with this global cause for giving.

Any effort to help give back is a good one, especially around the holiday season.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.