Several large organizations have come together to sponsor a social media movement to support healthcare workers, small businesses and loneliness during the pandemic.
The movement, dubbed #GivingTuesdayNow, launched May 5 to encourage businesses, individuals and philanthropists to support communities and nonprofit organizations worldwide. The movement encourages people to share how they are giving back on social media using the hashtag.
The leadership sponsors of #GivingTuesdayNow are:
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• PayPal
• America's Food Fund
• Fidelity Charitable
• Ford
• Ford Foundation
• William-Flora Heweltt Foundation
Multiple health systems are participating in the movement to encourage donations. For example, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston set up a page to collect #GivingTuesdayNow donations, and has reported that it received support from celebrities and athletes. Memphis, Tenn.-based St. Jude Children's Research Hospital participated in a Facebook livestream as part of #GivingTuesdayNow to promote donations.
The GivingTuesday movement began to raise money for organizations in December; the last event day of giving on Dec. 3, 2019 raised $2 billion in the U.S.