Six ways your company can get involved in #GivingTuesday

What’s Giving Tuesday, I hear you ask? Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving and takes place on Tuesday 27th November. It follows after Black Friday and Cyber Monday to counteract the consumerism of those two days. It’s about making one day count by giving time or money to good causes and it’s really easy to get your company involved. Last year it raised over $300 million globally! In the UK it always trends all day long on Twitter and this year over 2,000 charities have signed up to take part. So how can you get involved?

Here are six ways to get involved in #GivingTuesday

Donate a percentage of your sales/profit

Why not donate a percentage of sales from a particular product or total profit on 27th November? If you choose a product, you can start selling and promoting it in advance of #GivingTuesday – don’t forget to use the hashtag. Christmas is coming up and people love to buy gifts that also support charity.

Host a bake sale

Who doesn’t love a bake sale? It offers the chance to show off your baking skills or, if you’re not the baking type, you can simply purchase tasty treats to sell for charity. Everyone’s a winner! Don’t forget to include some gluten-free and vegan goodies so that everyone can tuck in. Simply choose a charity to donate the proceeds too and don’t forget to take photos, tweet the charity and use the #GivingTuesday hashtag.

Volunteer your time to a local charity

There are lots of charities that need one-off support so could you offer your time to help with something specific? Perhaps you could help them update their website with some plugins, help tidy up their database or you could create some design templates for them to use on social media. Some may need some very practical help, such as painting or gardening. Reach out to a local charity and offer your services.

Become a trustee

Now this one requires more than just a one-day commitment but it’s hugely rewarding. A trustee is a voluntary position where you sit on the board of a charity and are responsible for governance. Charities need trustees with a variety of skills and if you have tech or digital skills then you’ll be highly sought after. Here’s a really helpful guide on becoming a trustee by Reach Volunteering. You can then find trustee vacancies on their website too or on Trustee Finder.

Collect food for food banks

Sadly there are many families around the UK who are struggling. Why not use #GivingTuesday as an opportunity to collect food and toiletries to donate to food banks through The Trussell Trust? Better yet, why not challenge other companies in your building or office space to do the same?

Shout about charities

If your company already supports a charity, or your employees support charities close to their heart, why not use #GivingTuesday to shout about it? Not only will you be raising awareness of the charity or charities that you support, you’ll be showing how your company is giving back. A top tip would be to record short videos of staff explaining which charity they support and why.

These are just a few ways that your company can get involved in Giving Tuesday. We’d love to see what you’ll be doing so tweet us at @Lightful.