What Is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is a day dedicated to celebrating and encouraging acts of giving and generosity across the globe. Since its inception in 2012 through a collaboration between New York’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations, Giving Tuesday has evolved into a global movement involving many nonprofits and an organization that inspires a culture based on service and doing good beyond just the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

When is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday directly after Thanksgiving, aligned with the themes of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. Following the days of sales and shopping sprees, Giving Tuesday is the day designated for giving back to the community. In 2021, Giving Tuesday is on November 30th.

What Can I Do on Giving Tuesday?

There are many nonprofits and organizations that need your help. At Community FoodBank of New Jersey, we look forward to Giving Tuesday every year as we continue to serve our New Jersey neighbors. It’s the perfect opportunity to seek out and contribute to missions you care about.

• • Volunteer with CFBNJ. At our warehouses, a volunteer day with your friends and family can be spent sorting through and repacking food, assembling Kids Cafe Meals, Family Packs, Senior Boxes, Ole Glory Sandwiches, and Emergency Food Boxes, packaging bulk products into family-sized bags, or helping with administrative work. Also available is CFBNJ’s Care Crew, a Volunteer Warehouse Ambassador program for more committed volunteers. Care Crew members are trained into higher level tasks such as working on the backend of volunteer projects, being a point of guidance and support to other visiting volunteers, and more.

• • Give a monetary gift. Across various nonprofit organizations, monetary donations help tremendously as they can be allocated freely according to the organization’s specific needs and mission. Consider offering a monetary gift, either one-time or recurring, that can be made for the sake of giving or in tribute to someone you would like to honor. Other ways to be a lasting benefactor include planned legacies, IRA transfers, and more. Visit our donate funds page to learn more.

• • Host a Virtual Fund Drive. Take the next step beyond a monetary gift and launch a virtual fundraiser page that your entire community can access, donate to, and share. This is a simple yet long-term and effective way to not only accumulate funds but to share with your community the missions you support.

• • Donate food or other goods. Research what items are the most beneficial to the charities you care about and spend the day acquiring and delivering those items. At CFBNJ, we not only accept non-perishable and non-glass jar food products, but diapers and feminine hygiene products that are allocated to our community partners to distribute. All items can be left in the metal bins outside of both CFBNJ in Hillside and Egg Harbor Township. 

• • Spread the word. Put your social media or community centers to use by being vocal about the missions you care about. Your words hold weight and sharing with your community the stories and statistics that impact our world brings serious issues to the forefront of public consciousness, bringing on board more supporters and donors. Available for your use, CFBNJ’s virtual Volunteer Ambassador Project toolkit highlights different ideas, hashtags, and statistics for social media and community outreach.