Corporate Support of #GivingTuesday Hits Record Levels

CECP Spearheads Corporate Involvement in Global Movement
Dec 5, 2016 10:15 AM ET

New York, December 5, 2016 /3BL Media/ - One of the founding partners of the #GivingTuesday movement announced record levels of corporate support for the global philanthropy movement. According to CECP: The CEO Force for Good, the number in its overall coalition of the world’s largest companies participating in #GivingTuesday 2016 was 82, the highest participation level seen yet. Begun in 2012, #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. It kicks off the charitable season and takes place the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized global shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

“From the beginning, #GivingTuesday has played an important role in helping companies engage their vital stakeholders--employees and customers--in the causes they care about,” said Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP.  “This year is no different. We continue to see leading companies deepening their reach in support of this global event: matching donations in workplace giving initiatives, supporting long-time partners, encouraging employee volunteerism—and simply listening to what they are passionate about.”

"At AOL, we build brands people love by unleashing the world's best builders of culture and code,” said Sara Link, President of AOL Charitable Foundation and Head of Citizen AOL. “When we talk about unleashing our culture and code, we’re also talking about making the world a better place at a global scale. We are engaging our global brands including The Huffington Post and MAKERS to empower their audiences around the #GivingTuesday movement."

As #GivingTuesday is a social media-based movement, companies continue to leverage technology as a tool to make a positive impact in the community. Highlights of some of this year’s CECP-affiliated company activities included:

  • AOL – Donated ad space and ran editorials asking consumers to vote on one of four causes that will receive a donation of ad space from AOL. The nonprofit with the most votes will be featured 100% pro bono on AOL.com. The Huffington Post has also been providing robust support, publishing a #GivingTuesday blog every day throughout November.
  • JM Family Enterprises - Hosted internal "Community Involvement for Young Professionals" Lunch & Learn led by a panel of JM Family associates. These associates are engaged in various nonprofit young professional networks and addressed how and why they got involved and the benefits derived. 
  • JPMorgan Chase – Encouraged employees to donate through the firm’s workplace giving program with a $2 for $1 promotion and a giving competition across the United States. This year, our participation on Giving Tuesday doubled and we exceeded our goal of raising $1 million for nonprofits in our communities.
  • Newman’s Own Foundation - Matched donations dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000 for each of 20 organizations in a challenge on the CrowdRise crowdfunding platform and provided social media and communications support to generate results.
  • PayPal – Breaking records: The Guinness Book of World Records certified PayPal’s 2015 efforts for the most money raised online in 24 hours - $45.8 million. This year the company continued to offer free donation processing and an additional 1% match on www.paypal.com/givecheer.
  • Pearson - Raised awareness externally through Project Literacy, and internally through Kiva. Employees made over $50,000 in Kiva loans globally in 48 hours. 
  • Principal – Promoted 4th consecutive record-breaking United Way campaign for dollars raised. Highlighting $8.3M+ with 73% employee participation in 2016, impacting 230+ communities in 45 states. Launched inaugural Global Volunteer Week project (Dec. 5-9), which is a focused effort to engage employees in global community volunteerism through organized projects at major office locations, team building projects, small group employee projects and individual volunteerism in 6 countries.
  • PSEG – Raised awareness internally to encourage employee participation. Participating every year in #GT, 2016 is the second year in a row that PSEG extended its campaign beyond promoting volunteering to include monetary giving by offering a two-for-one match for donations.
  • S&P Global – Through the end of the year, S&P Global is offering a two-for-one match of employees’ personal contributions to eligible organizations.
  • Salesforce - Continued support of #GivingTuesday and Pledge 1% by doing a #PledgeItForward campaign in order to reach 1,300 pledges by Giving Tuesday.

More resources and information on how companies can get involved in #GivingTuesday can be found at http://cecp.co/events/givingtuesday

ABOUT CECP: THE CEO FORCE FOR GOOD
CECP is a CEO led coalition that believes that a company’s social strategy—how it engages with key stakeholders including employees, communities, and customers—determines company success. Founded in 1999 by actor and philanthropist Paul Newman and leading CEOs to create a better world through business, CECP has grown to a movement of more than 200 of the world’s largest companies that represent $7 trillion in revenues, $18.6 billion in societal investment, 13 million employees, and $15 trillion in assets under management. CECP helps companies transform their social strategy by providing customized connections and networking, counsel and support, benchmarking and trends, and awareness building and recognition. http://cecp.co