Giving Back: A New Post-Thanksgiving Tradition
By Microsoft Citizenship Team
The holiday season is quickly approaching and like many, you are likely already thinking about upcoming holiday activities, family gatherings, and yes – shopping!
But the holiday season is about more than just getting ‘stuff’. It’s also about giving thanks and giving back. And that’s why we are proud to be a founding partner of #GivingTuesday—a movement that will transform the giving season by helping communities in need around the world.
What is #GivingTuesday?
#GivingTuesday is a new national day of giving that will kick off the holiday season. This year, it will be on November 27. On that day, charities, families, businesses and individuals will change the way people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season. #GivingTuesday will support hundreds of nonprofit organizations helping people around the world.
How is Microsoft involved?
Recently, we launched a companywide initiative called Microsoft YouthSpark. The goal of YouthSpark is to create opportunities for 300 million youth around the world over the next three years by empowering young people to imagine and realize their full potential. As part of YouthSpark, we created Give for Youth, a micro-giving portal that makes it easy for people to fund and follow youth around the world.
On #GivingTuesday, when a donor (somebody like you) makes a donation on Give for Youth, Microsoft will match that donation dollar for dollar, up to a total of $100,000. In this way, we hope to play a small part in transforming the holiday season into the giving season for those with the greatest needs.
Wondering how to get involved?
It’s simple. On November 27th your family, community, company or organization can all get in on the giving. Please tell everyone you can about what you are doing this giving season and why it matters. If you want to get involved with what we’re doing at Microsoft, simply make a donation to your favorite youth project at GiveforYouth.org, and we’ll match your donation—you give a dollar, we give a dollar and we fund a lot of dreams. You can also follow the conversation online by tracking #GivingTuesday.