Giving Together: A Resource for Giving Tuesday

[Michelle Fifis]

Every year, Giving Tuesday gives organizations a single day to rally their employees around generosity and show what business can do as a force for good. This guide provides strategies and program ideas to create impactful Giving Tuesday initiatives that put your pledge into action. Whether you're a small startup or a global enterprise, you'll find actionable ways to engage your team, support your community, and activate your equity, profit, product, and time pledge.

This resource covers:

• History of Giving Tuesday
• The Importance of Giving Tuesday
• Program ideas and examples from other Pledge 1% members
• Pledge 1% graphics for your use

History of Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday, observed annually on the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving, launched in 2012 at the 92nd Street Y in New York as a response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What began as a single day of giving has grown into a global generosity movement with 75 country movements and more than 240 local communities and coalitions across the US. In 2026, Giving Tuesday falls on December 1.

In 2025, 38.1 million people in the US took part, giving an estimated 4.0 billion dollars and with 11.1 million volunteering, up 20% from the year before. Read more here.

The Importance of Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is a day for members to take clear action on fulfilling their pledge. It is a public, low-lift moment to activate your pledge and invite your team to be part of it. Giving Tuesday is also a Pledge 1% tradition. Every year members share their impact story through the Pledge 1% Gives campaign. In 2025, members shared 47 stories from 12 countries.

Program Ideas

Giving Tuesday offers endless opportunities for creative programming. By aligning your efforts with your company's mission, values, and goals, you'll drive engagement and create a compelling, clear narrative for your leadership, team, and customers. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Giving & Matching

A donation match is one of the simplest ways to double your team's impact on Giving Tuesday.
Some ideas include:

• Match employee donations made on Giving Tuesday dollar-for-dollar and share a live tally throughout the day.
• Offer employee-choice grants that let each team direct a portion of your company's 1% to a nonprofit they choose.
• Give every employee a giving credit to donate to the cause of their choice.
• If you've pledged equity, use Giving Tuesday to share why you made that commitment and the impact it will fund.

Example: Pledge 1% member Canva matches employee donations to nonprofits dollar-for-dollar, up to $3,300 USD per person each year. In 2025, Canvanauts donated $390k USD, and with Canva's match, nearly $758k USD went to nonprofits.

Community Impact

• Offer paid volunteer time off (VTO) on Giving Tuesday so employees can serve a local nonprofit.
• Organize a team service project, in person or virtual, with a nonprofit partner in your community.
• Launch a company-wide challenge where employees pledge a set number of volunteer hours or donations by year-end.
• Host a donation drive for items such as coats, food, or school supplies with a local partner.

Education & Reflection

• Host a lunch and learn with a nonprofit partner about the cause they serve and how employees can help year-round.
• Run a "Why I Give" employee spotlight series on Slack or social media.
• Share your company's impact from the past year so employees see what their giving and time made possible.

Product & Industry Leadership

• Donate or discount your product for nonprofits and announce it on Giving Tuesday.
• Run a skills-based sprint where a team lends 2 to 4 hours of marketing, data, or design expertise to one nonprofit.
• Add a round-up or give-back option to your product so customers can join your Giving Tuesday campaign.
  

Example: On Giving Tuesday 2025, Pledge 1% member Circle shared the launch of the Circle Foundation as part of the Pledge 1% Gives campaign, putting its equity pledge into action.

Looking for Additional Ideas?

Consider using tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or other AI resources to brainstorm customized ideas for your industry or organization. Here are a few prompts that may spark creativity:

• "Our organization is in [insert your industry] with [insert team size] employees, and we'd like to run a Giving Tuesday program. Can you suggest a plan for the week leading up to it?"
• "Write a Slack announcement inviting employees to join our Giving Tuesday donation match."
• "How can we turn Giving Tuesday into a year-round giving habit for our team?"

These prompts can help you develop a tailored plan that resonates with your customers, engages your team, and celebrates the power of giving together.

Pledge 1% Graphics

Your organization is invited to add the Pledge 1% logo to your Giving Tuesday announcements. 

Join the Conversation!

We invite you to share how your organization plans to celebrate Giving Tuesday 2026! Are you matching donations, offering volunteer time, or donating your product? Which nonprofit partners will you support this year? Drop a comment below. 

Let's work together to make this Giving Tuesday our biggest yet! 💚