LOCAL ACTIONS FOR GLOBAL IMPACT: THE POWER OF THE GIVING TUESDAY MOVEMENT IN EAST AFRICA
Paige Omondi-EAPN
Started in 2012 as a simple idea to encourage people to do good and promote generosity, #GivingTuesday has grown to be an instrumental tool in shaping ideologies on the power of individuals and organizations dedicated to transforming the lives of their communities. Fueled by the power of social media, the GivingTuesday movement has risen to be a yearly mission that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate for the purpose of generosity.
Currently, in 75 countries worldwide, the GivingTuesday movement has unleashed radical generosity through unique, creative, and diverse campaigns by partners focused on addressing and giving solutions to local challenges.
As actions set on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are made from various sectors across the world, goal number 17 centered on a partnership to achieve the goal is vital to ensure success. This has been successfully witnessed through the GivingTuesday movement which has built a community of givers passionate about creating global impact driven by local action. The movement has also led to a shift in the ideologies on generosity thus driving a net increase in giving with over 2.5 billion dollars being recorded as donations made from GivingTuesday campaigns across the world. The movement has created a global data hub that has contributed to knowledge around the existing giving climate documenting giving behaviors, patterns, using credible data to inspire more giving around the world.
Locally in East Africa, the movement has profiled partner work, birthed partnerships, and created more visibility for philanthropy efforts in substantial ways.
“GivingTuesday helped us build our fundraising portfolio, taking advantage of the Global Giving incentive to match donations and we were able to raise funds to support our programs”, says Lucy Chepchumba, Good Kenyan Foundation.
“We were able to come together with six organizations to climb Mount Kenya in order to raise awareness and funds for our individual campaigns together. The mission raised 10,000 dollars and put a spotlight on all the unique initiatives we were running as different organizations”adds Barbara Muthoka from the Tin Roof Foundation.
The movement has led to an increase in organized and structured giving in various forms leading to vibrant philanthropy in the region through an increase in individual participation. Notably, in 2020 the movement raised over Four Million Dollars in East Africa.
Being a social media-centric movement, the campaign has spurred digitalization of operations amongst local organizations through local fundraising platforms to support their fundraising activities.
The movement has encouraged collaboration amongst diverse partners united in achieving the same goal. With capacity development opportunities being created by local coordinators such as EAPN, the rise of the movement has led to a more enlightened community of givers who are better equipped with skills and techniques to support the successful conceptualization and implementation of their programs perpetuating a culture of giving informing existing trends on giving.
For developmental change to be effectively witnessed locally and globally, movements built on the foundation of unifying communities for the sake of a better world cannot be left behind. The GivingTuesday movement has risen to be a strong wave celebrating the virtue of giving back and creating a new ritual of kindness in order to make generosity go viral. GivingTuesday has cemented the important value agile, unique, and unified communities play towards creating a better world.
