The 8th annual #GivingTuesday is coming up soon on December 3,2019.  #GivingTuesday represents an opportunity for everyone to give back in a variety of ways, and companies are increasingly realizing how important it is to get involved in this global movement. Listen in to today’s episode for tips on how your company can leverage its people and core competencies to engage on #GivingTuesday.

In this super-sized episode, Blackbaud’s Rachel Hutchisson talks to both Gary Levante, senior vice president of Corporate Responsibility & Culture at Berkshire Bank and Icema Gibbs, director of Corporate Social Responsibility at JetBlue. Gary and Icema share how their respective companies celebrate #GivingTuesday and how the day connects to the rest of their CSR programs and overall business strategy. They also give advice for how other companies can make a mark on this global day of giving. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• Why it’s important for companies to step up on Giving Tuesday
• How to evaluate #GivingTuesday success
• How #GivingTuesday relates to Berkshire Bank’s core purpose
• What Berkshire Bank employees do to celebrate #GivingTuesday
• Why it’s so important to leverage social media on #GivingTuesday
• Gary’s tips for small-to-midsize companies who want to participate in this year’s #GivingTuesday
• Last year’s JetBlue #GivingTuesday initiative, Destination Good
• How JetBlue employees engage on Giving Tuesday
• Spreading out the giving spirit over the whole year
• Measuring the impact of giving and volunteering programs
• Icema’s advice for how to leverage your company’s core competencies to make an impact on #GivingTuesday

Resources:

Gary Levante

Icema Gibbs

#GivingTuesday Toolkit and Resources

Quotes:  

“When I think of the real power of social media it’s to have a conversation with your customers with your community members with your partners about why activities like giving Tuesday are important.” --Gary Levante

“Our crew members are giving back not only through financial contributions, but really giving back in ways of really highlighting what’s important to them in their communities.” --Icema Gibbs

“We realized that we have to be able to talk about not only the outcomes, but the impact. What we did was fine, but how did we help somebody? What was the impact?” --Icema Gibbs