It seems it all started with Black Friday, a day intentionally distinguished from the rest to jump start the holiday spending spree and give retailers an end-of-the year boost in revenue.
Then came Small Business Saturday, intended to encourage folks to “shop local” and support neighborhood businesses.
With the online shopping boom came Cyber Monday, another jolt for retail profits that offered shopping via the convenience of your computer, tablet or smartphone.
The effort was part of a global philanthropic movement called Giving Tuesday. The purpose was singular: celebrate generosity. The goal was also simple: get people to give. The Memphis component of the campaign was designed to get additional financial support for local nonprofit agencies.
“Looping back to giving thanks on Thanksgiving, the previous Thursday, Giving Tuesday is a global celebration of a new tradition of generosity,” said Suffel. “The global event is now in its fourth year, but this is the first year that we have rallied support in Memphis.”
From relative newcomers to the local nonprofit scene like A Step Ahead Foundation and Volunteer Odyssey to long-time institutions like Memphis Goodwill and the Junior League of Memphis, there were 212 Alliance member nonprofits from across the city that participated in this inaugural event.
With the click of a link supporters were able to participate in Giving Tuesday by giving to one of the participating local nonprofits or giving to a partner nonprofit that was supporting the event. Individuals were encouraged to show their support in another way, too, by taking an “unselfie” of themselves holding a sign that said who they gave to and why, along with the hashtags of #UNselfie, #Give901, #GivingTuesday, #GritGrindGive. And to further promote the campaign, all participants were asked to be a social media ambassador, using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to encourage others to give to a worthy Mid-South organization.
When asked what she had learned from this experience, Suffel said her lessons were three-fold.
“Partnerships are powerful. If you want to amplify a message, work with strategic partners who are mission-aligned and share similar goals,” said Suffel. “And Memphians love Memphis. Memphis is the second most generous city in the nation and people love to give. Lastly, start early. I would have been able to secure more partnerships if I had been aware of Giving Tuesday sooner and created the concept for the campaign in October. Next year I will hit the ground running two months out!”
Because this was the inaugural event for Memphis-style Giving Tuesday, Suffel says she didn’t set a monetary goal, but she did measure their “reach.”
“According to my calculations we reached approximately 110,000 people in our networks (although there would be some overlap on those lists which is difficult to calculate) which is really exciting,” said Suffel. “Additionally, our blog was ‘liked’ over 100 times, and shared as well as an incalculable amount of retweets.”
Suffel’s plans for the future of this endeavor?
“Next year we will start much earlier and get all of our members and partners on a communications and development page faster,” said Suffel. “This will make the brand tighter and our efforts more streamlined. I built the boat as I sailed it this year, so next year I will have a strategic plan laid out. And we’re going to have a city-wide fundraising goal. The more people who learned about us this year, the better we are next year.”
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