When thinking of the holiday season, what comes to mind? Do you think of Black Friday shopping, Christmas gifts, and delicious food?
While it is easy to get caught up in holiday consumerism, it is important to remember to give back and support your community. Giving Tuesday serves as a reminder of how we can all come together to give back in a variety of ways to better our Tampa Bay community. Let’s learn more about the history of Giving Tuesday and how you can participate this season by supporting Bridging Freedom!
What is Giving Tuesday?
Giving Tuesday is a global movement that aims to encourage people to spread generosity through philanthropy. Giving Tuesday takes place every year on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Many organizations, companies, non-profits, and individuals donate money to participate in this recognized day. It is common to see brands and companies launch giving campaigns as a way to showcase their mission and increase brand image. Ultimately, the day serves as a reminder for people to give back in whatever amount, form, or act of kindness they can.
History
Traditionally, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been days of excessive holiday shopping and hordes of pushing crowds. While both shopping days bring excitement and plenty of deals, they subject the holiday season to unreasonable amounts of consumerism. Recognizing how the holiday spirit had shifted to consumerism, New York’s 92nd Street Y partnered with the United Nations Foundation to form Giving Tuesday.
The first Giving Tuesday took place in 2012 to encourage people to help make a difference and impact their community. Since the first Giving Tuesday, there are now over 240 locally-led communities with around 33.1 million participants across the United States. With selfless generosity and community support during the holiday season, Giving Tuesday has proven to change lives across the world!
Learn more about Giving Tuesday in the YouTube video below!
Why is Giving Tuesday After Cyber Monday?
Instead of having to wait in a long line on Thanksgiving night for Black Friday, more people are opting to participate in Cyber Monday from the comfort of their homes. Cyber Monday is a 24-hour e-commerce marketing strategy where many companies offer impressive discounts before the holiday season.
While the term “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005, the lines were blurred when the event became its own thing. As online shopping grew in popularity, the bulk of large retailers began offering online deals past Black Friday. The large increase in online deals is when the hype behind Cyber Monday took off and started to become nearly as popular as Black Friday. In 2020, Cyber Monday gained more consumers on Thanksgiving weekend than ever, mainly due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Since the shopping holiday has grown to be one of the biggest spending days of the year, it’s no coincidence that Giving Tuesday follows the next day. Fortunately, Cyber Monday has opened up more opportunities to encourage people to give on Giving Tuesday. From making online donations accessible to sharing marketing campaigns, Cyber Monday’s online format has been beneficial in growing the initiative for Giving Tuesday. Simply, Giving Tuesday follows Cyber Monday because it encourages people to think more about giving back to their community and less about materialistic things.
Learn more about paying it forward on Giving Tuesday after the shopping weekend in the YouTube video below!
Support Bridging Freedom This Giving Tuesday
Minor sex trafficking exploits around 300,000 children a year in the United States. These innocent children are prostituted against their will and forced to forfeit their childhood. Victims of this horrific crime need long-term care to provide physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. That’s why Bridging Freedom offers therapeutic safe homes for victims to heal and restore their stolen childhood. We aim to combat domestic minor sex trafficking through our restoration programs for rescued victims and by educating the public.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the State of Florida, Bridging Freedom relies on the generosity of individuals and corporations to achieve our mission. We need the help of our community to help us continue to do what we do. If you donate to Bridging Freedom this Giving Tuesday, you will be directly helping provide minor sex trafficking victims with a long-term therapeutic safe home campus, meals, and clothing. As we continue to build safe homes and provide resources to victims of minor sex trafficking, we can take care of the vulnerable in our community and create a safer place.
Other Ideas on How to Support Your Tampa Bay Community
If you are looking for simple ways to support the community and those in need during the holiday season, take a look at some of our top ideas for this year’s Giving Tuesday:
- Donate to Hurricane Ian relief for the Floridians impacted by the storm.
- Volunteer in your community, church, homeless shelter, nursing home, or at a local hospital.
- Spread kindness to neighbors, family members, friends, and strangers!
- Donate clothes, food, or supplies to a local drive.
- Use social media to spread the news about #GivingTuesday.
- Host a fundraising event. Watch this video for tips on how to run a successful fundraiser!
- Donate to a fundraiser or cause of your choice.
- Support Bridging Freedom!
If you are looking to implement Giving Tuesday in your household this year, check out this YouTube video to find ways you can have your children participate.
Bridging Freedom | Restoring Stolen Childhoods
Our team serves as an advocate for restoring stolen childhoods. Aside from providing services for victims, Bridging Freedom aims to educate the community about the horrors going on behind closed doors. Through partnerships with Clearwater / Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking, Tampa Bay FBI Innocence Lost Initiative, and St. Petersburg College Center for Human Trafficking Awareness, Bridging Freedom can help provide victims with a safe place and connect them to necessary resources. In order to allow us to continue doing what we do, Bridging Freedom relies on the generosity and collaboration of our community of supporters. If you would like to be a part of our group of supporters, you can donate at the page here.