What is Giving Tuesday? 

Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday is #GivingTuesday, a day of global giving dedicated to raise money and awareness for a range of causes around the world. Although donating financially may seem like the first (and only) option to take part in Giving Tuesday, there are many other ways to show your support.  

Equally as valuable is giving your time to help out local and national organisations that need volunteers more than ever. If time isn’t on your side, you could make a commitment to shopping at and donating stock to charity shops, where a percentage of donation proceeds go towards the parent charity. You could also get involved with a campaign you’re personally passionate about, raising awareness of a particular social issue and using your voice to make change, either through protests, petitioning or educating others.  

Why is Giving Tuesday so important to think about this year? 

Almost 2/3 of UK charities say they have experienced a drop in revenues in the past year. For smaller organisations, a loss of over £5,000 can have a significant and detrimental impact on their ability to provide their services. Charities are also struggling to cope with rising costs associated with running their organisation, including energy costs, staff salaries, and travel costs. 

Importantly, 1 in 5 UK charities say they are concerned about the falling numbers of people volunteering, severely impacting the day-to-day services of many organisations. This is part of a greater trend seen since the onset of the pandemic: pre-pandemic 17% of people were volunteering, but by 2023 this figure fell to 13% - a drop of 1.6 million people. What’s more, the share of younger people volunteering is one of the lowest amongst all age groups: only 7% of people aged 16-24 volunteered in the past year compared to 10% of those aged 65+. 

We want to help change this. Currently over 300 City students are volunteering with over 100 charities. Our goal is to support as many students as we can into volunteering over the next year, and to provide more and more opportunities with a range of organisations that reflect our students’ preferences.  

How to get involved at City? 

This Giving Tuesday, you can come find us in University Building to find out more about how to volunteer with one of our 100+ organisations. We’ll be on Stall 3 in the Main Corridor between 11am and 2pm with some interactive games and information packs. See the event details here. 

If you can’t wait until then to get stuck in, why not sign up for our joint volunteering one-off opportunity with City Sustainability next week? On Tuesday 21st November we’re running four back-to-back gardening sessions in Northampton Square, where we’ll need your help to plant 1,000 bulbs in the gardens! To find out more and sign up, click here.  

Want to find out more about our charity partners? We’ve created a new scheme where we’ll be inviting a partner charity to campus each week to chat to students about their work and recruit student volunteers from City. You can check out our Charities on Campus events on CareersHub. This term we’re welcoming the Sickle Cell Society, ReachOut, Childline and Friends of Moorfields, and many more will be coming next term!