Giving Tuesday Was a Success in Northeast Michigan

Giving Tuesday is a global movement on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving for people to take a moment and give back to nonprofit organizations in their area.

This has occurred in northeast Michigan for the last nine years, and this year, once again, was a massive success for nonprofits across nine different counties.

“We saw our first gift roll in a little after midnight, and we saw our last gift roll in at 11:59,” said Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan Executive Director Patrick Heraghty. “Gifts from all over the country, we got all four corners covered and it was a very exciting day here.”

Not only did the nonprofits in northeast Michigan benefit from Giving Tuesday themselves, but they also helped cross promote for other nonprofits in the area as well, showing a strong sense of community in the small counties.

“We bounce off each other and the way that Community Foundation brings us all together for the one campaign actually helps the donor too, because when they go to the page, the website, they can pick whatever,” said Lesslee Dort, a patient navigator at Friends Together. “I’ve been introduced to organizations because I’ve gone to the website and just read through them all.”

There were even 14 new organizations that participated in Giving Tuesday this year, more opportunities for the community to give to and support all sorts of different nonprofits.

“This is about community giving,” said Heraghty. “I mean there’s a reason that it follows Black Friday, Shop Downtown Saturday and Cyber Monday. It’s become a worldwide phenomenon and we’ve certainly seen that in Northeast Michigan, the growth of it over the years, the excitement, the participation, and so it’s just a huge day for everyone.”

Giving Tuesday is a chance for people to take a break from all the buying and consuming and give back to something bigger.

“There’s a lot of opportunity through those organizations to connect to your community because of what they do here in the community, and we really saw that with the number of gifts that came in yesterday,” said Heraghty.

On next week Wednesday, the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan will announce the winner of the Golden Goose to the nonprofit that raised the most money, as well as another special announcement.