Giving Tuesday: Americans Donating To Charities Today

America is celebrating the third annual Giving Tuesday today - a day at the beginning of the consumer-crazed holiday season to promote giving to charities.

The day is being promoted with the hash tag #GivingTuesday, which soon became a top trend on Twitter today.

Giving Tuesday was founded in 2012 by New York's 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation.

"A lot of people get through the holidays, and there's a sense that we want to find a way to connect more meaningfully to more people who don't have as many things," Henry Timms, who is Giving Tuesday's founder, a philanthropy superstar and the executive director of the Y's community center that provides programs and services to hundreds of thousands of people, said to Forbes.

It's difficult to track how much people donate on Giving Tuesday because people are encouraged to donate to the charity of their choice.

A recent survey, which wasn't directly related to Giving Tuesday, found that Utah was the most charitable state in America in 2014 - followed by South Dakota, Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska respectively.

"There's no doubt that we all like to rally around something. What about a rally for good and giving in a season that many people feel has been hijacked by just consumerism? And there's clearly a demand for this," Aaron Sherinian, a spokesperson with the UN Foundation, an early partner in Giving Tuesday, said to Forbes.

"We're not saying to people, 'don't shop on Black Friday,' or, 'don't shop on Cyber Monday.' But we're saying to people that giving season shouldn't be something that happens around last three days of the year, when a lot of people write checks," Sherinian continued. "And regardless of your faith, your nationality, or your ZIP code, everyone has an opportunity to give back at the end of the year."

Americans nationwide are becoming philanthropists today and are tweeting about where they are giving to:

Tags

Donation, Charity, Philanthropy, Holiday, Twitter