Antidote to Black Friday frenzy as Microsoft helps bring #GivingTuesday to UK for the first time

As Black Friday shoppers nurse their bruises and the last of the Cyber Monday shoppers log off, Microsoft is helping bring a welcome antidote to the consumer frenzy with the rollout of charitable programme #GivingTuesday in the UK.

#GivingTuesday directly follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the biggest days of consumer spending in the world, and is a global day of giving aimed at encouraging people, charities and businesses to donate time, money or their voice to help a good cause. Following a hugely successful launch in the US, #GivingTuesday is being brought to the UK by the Charities Aid Foundation with the support of Microsoft.


#GivingTuesday
was launched in 2012 by Henry Timms, executive director of charity 92nd Street Y, as a rallying call to donate to charities on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Now in its third year, #GivingTuesday has grown from 2,500 partners to 18,000 corporations, retailers and charitable bodies.

Microsoft became a founding partner of #GivingTuesday in 2012 to raise awareness of the issues youth are facing around the world and to raise funding to empower young people to pursue opportunities in education, employment and entrepreneurship on the YouthSpark on GlobalGiving giving portal. Since then the site has raised over $4.8 million to support more than 130,000 youth.

This year, with the theme “Everyone Starts Somewhere,” Microsoft will match donations on www.globalgiving.org, up to $350,000, to create opportunities for young people around the world through technology skills education.

In the UK, Microsoft is partnering with UK Youth, an organisation that helps children build skills and confidence using technology, to use the #GivingTuesday funds raised to create a digital opportunity fund. The fund will support the development of youth clubs “digital literacy sessions, community outreach to build new partnerships, and even help with the costs of childcare to enable a project to engage with teenage parents,” says UK Youth National Projects Officer Gary Brunskill.

Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society, Claire Wright, Managing Director at Connect Reading and Microsoft employees celebrate #GivingTuesday, an alternative to Black Friday
Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society, Claire Wright, Managing Director at Connect Reading and Microsoft employees celebrate #GivingTuesday

December 02, 2014

 

“We’ve got high hopes,” comments Brunskill. “The opportunity to receive matched funds for donations should be as compelling to UK audiences as it is in the states – this project will undoubtedly make a massive difference to young people all across the U.K.”

Learn more and donate, here.

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