Hey, Ryan, you're looking a little extra festive.
Uh, why are you wearing a Santa hat, jingle bell socks, and is that a give-o-meter sweater?
Yes, yes it is, Pam, because the holidays are here and one of my favorite holidays is coming up.
Giving Tuesday!
Wait, you're treating Giving Tuesday like a holiday?
Oh, it is a holiday, Pam.
There's Thanksgiving, where I eat and say what I'm thankful for, then Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where I start my holiday shopping, and finally the grand finale, Giving Tuesday, a day when everyone can share the joy by donating, volunteering or doing something kind for others.
Oh, I am so on board for that holiday.
Let's get this show going.
I'm Pamela Kirkland.
And I'm Ryan Willard.
It's Friday, November 21st.
We are the 10 News, and this is our Giving Tuesday Deep Dive.
Okay, Ryan, I have a little treat for you.
I know that you are getting so excited about Giving Tuesday.
I am so excited.
Okay, I'm getting a little overwhelmed trying to figure out how to give back.
And I just can't believe that someone invented a holiday to give back and to help other people.
That's so cool.
I know someone who was involved with getting this whole thing started.
Hold on a second.
Let me let her in.
Susan, come on in.
Susan, can you introduce yourself to Ryan and to our tenors?
Absolutely.
Well, hello, Ryan.
And I'm thrilled that you love Giving Tuesday because it is one of the greatest days of the year.
I'm Susan McPherson.
I am the founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, a 12-year-old B Corp certified strategic impact consultancy.
I am starstruck and I am just going to sit here and listen.
And I'm also the author of The Lost Art of Connecting.
But fun fact, I was part of the original team that helped Birth Giving Tuesday in 2012.
That's so amazing.
So it's been going on for a long time.
So take us back.
Like, how did it get started?
Well, and again, I don't want to overplay my role because I was on the how do we communicate this?
How do we get this out in the world?
But the actual brilliance, the seeding of the idea, came from the then CEO of the 92nd Street Y, Henry Timms, along with some of his team, a woman named Asha Curran, who actually leads Giving Tuesday today.
And a gentleman named Aaron Sherinian, who at the time was with the UN Foundation.
And I'll never forget, we were at Rio Plus 20 in 2010 or 2011 in Rio de Janeiro.
It was a big climate conference.
And we were attending an event and Richard Branson was speaking.
Virgin was leading the event.
And Henry and Aaron were drawing on a napkin their idea to create an annual day of giving.
That would be the week of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
And the goal was those holidays if you can call them that, Cyber Monday, Black Friday are all about shopping shopping shopping, shopping.
And their contention, and brilliantly so, was, why don't we have a day of giving?
And giving in the sense of, yes, you can make donations, but you can also volunteer.
You can also give shout-outs for causes that you believe in.
You can... share on social media, something that you are passionate about.
It's all about giving back and caring.
And that was the goal.
And that is how it started.
And everybody thought we were crazy.
It's never going to be a big thing.
And now it is taking place in six continents, touching over 100000 organizations and millions of people.
That's amazing.
If you think back 2010, 2011, we were well into... having internet access and shopping online.
So it seemed like the right timing to start thinking about.
Is there also a way to use this technology to give back to support, to volunteer, to amplify?
And the goal isn't necessarily to replace shopping.
I mean, that wasn't the mission, but it was like, wait, we're doing all this.
Why can't we also make time, think about others, make time to give, make time to volunteer.
So that kind of explains how it came about.
I was just also going to add no one owns giving tuesday, right?
I mean even the logo.
If you were to use the logo on your show or whatever you could change it to be like, so it would make sense for your audience, right?
Like the whole goal is is it's owned by everyone, which i think also speaks to the essence of what it is.
Yeah, and that actually leads me to my next question.
So they had This idea you're all together and it's bubbling up, but now you have the tough challenge of how do you communicate this?
How did the team take something that was this kernel of this amazing idea and get it out there and get people so activated and excited about it?
It took a few years.
The first few years it was a couple of hundred, and then it built to a thousand, and then it built to a hundred thousand.
The way we were able to grow it.
We have nonprofit clients that every year look to Giving Tuesday as a day of the year to not only raise money but raise visibility, raise volunteerism.
So it was very much grassroots.
So what you had happen was word of mouth.
When somebody had success, or when an organization had success or an individual or a 10-year-old had success, the natural kind of thought process is then they tell somebody else.
So it just kept growing and growing and growing.
Yeah, I truly love it as this moment to really be thinking about what we can do in our communities, how we can give back.
And I love that idea of that it's really for everyone.
And I'm curious over the years like, are there some activations that you've seen that maybe have been your favorite or were the most surprising?
I think what is most surprising to me is how it globally took off, because the philanthropy culture was very something, very much unique to the United States.
And the fact now that it's operating in hundreds of countries around the world tells me, more importantly, what it did.
Was it captured that notion that we all care about others right?
We all want, in some shape or form, to make this world a better place, but many people don't know how to start or where to start.
So it was the trigger to get people to think about ways.
And I encourage everyone to go to the Giving Tuesday website because there are so many ways good ideas that are shared and then it will spark other ideas.
And you know when I think about your audience.
You know if I'm a 10 year old, I'm like how do I get started?
Big ideas start small and you don't need a big budget or a big bank account.
You just need an idea and passion and persistence.
And I would say talk to your classmates, talk to your friends and don't worry about getting it perfect.
Just pick a local cause that you care about.
I love that passion and persistence.
So thank you so much, Susan, Thank you.
Okay, I just got to start local.
Well, I love eating and want other people to eat.
Oh, my friends SJ and Clausen are organizing a food drive.
So I'll gather some food and help them with that.
Okay, beer or meat?
This is a message for the grownups.
If you want to get in on the Giving Tuesday spirit, you can still donate to the 10 News.
Our show is made possible by generous donations, and they're all tax deductible.
If you'd like to make a donation, a link is in our show notes.
Speaking of the show, let's get back to it.
How cool was Susan?
Super cool.
That was so inspiring.
Giving Tuesday really is about everyone doing their part.
And we found some young people who are going above and beyond to give back to their community.
Here are five fantastic young people.
Number five.
After her senior year of high school, Maya Moore founded Girls Run Global, a nonprofit that teaches girls running and life skills.
She first worked with a team of 70 girls ages 13 to 19 in Morogoro, Tanzania.
With the help of sponsors, she brought running shoes backpacks socks, sports bras, granola bars and notebooks for everyone.
Moore believes that running is a sport with a unique ability to teach people skills that can apply to other hard things in their life.
Number four, a 13-year-old in St.
Louis named Legacy Jackson has been volunteering for as long as she can remember.
She would volunteer with her parents at homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
One day, she noticed that most of the volunteers were adults and that she was the only kid.
So in 2016, she started a nonprofit called Little Legacies, which mobilizes volunteers of any age.
Since then, Little Legacies has created a library for a children's home and sent 3000 pairs of shoes to Africa.
Legacy and her volunteers have also cooked Thanksgiving dinner for people who are unhoused and donated diapers and other baby essentials to the St.
Louis Crisis Nursery.
Number three is a little legend with a great name, Ryan Hickman.
When Ryan was three and a half years old, he visited the RePlanet Recycling Center in California and found his life's mission.
By the time he was seven years old, he was the CEO, manager and employee of Ryan's Recycling Company, which picked up cans and bottles to take to the recycling center.
And in 2020, Ryan founded Project 3R, which supports and leads community cleanup projects and hands-on environmental educational programs.
Ryan is responsible for recycling nearly two million cans and bottles, keeping them out of our oceans and landfills.
Number two is Autumn Peltche, a Canadian indigenous activist who is often referred to as a water warrior.
Peltche is an Anishinaabe advocate for clean water and a member of the Wikwemikom First Nation.
When Autumn was 13 years old, she addressed world leaders at the UN about water protection.
In her moving speech she said, quote Where I come from, I'm fortunate that I can still drink the water from the lake.
But sometimes I question it.
Not far from where I live, there are communities that have lived through boil water advisories.
I ask myself, why is it this way?
Why in my province?
Why in my country?
Autumn was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize.
And our last fantastic young person is Tajavi Manoj, who is Time magazine's Kid of the Year.
Her 85-year-old grandfather was targeted by scammers.
When she got home, she researched how often seniors were scammed through the internet, and it turned out to be incredibly common.
So she built and launched a website called Shield Seniors to create cybersecurity for older adults.
Shield Seniors educates grownups age 60 and older on what online scams look like, how to analyze suspicious emails and messages, and provides links to report them.
I think Minoja is super cool, because usually grownups are protecting kids, but she's a kid who's helping older grownups protect themselves.
Absolutely fantastic.
And that was five fantastic young people.
They all show that no act of kindness is too small to make a difference.
Now on to our trivia master, Owen.
Thanks, Pam.
All right, we've talked all about Giving Tuesday and how generous humans can be.
But do you know how much U.S. donors gave to the Giving Tuesday in 2024?
Was it A, $979,321,649, B, $1.23 billion, C, $2.67 billion, or D?
$3.6 billion.
All right, tenors, did you guess it?
The answer is D. In 2024, a record was set for generosity.
In 2022 and 2023, the U.S. gave about $3.1 billion, but had a $500 million increase in 2024.
But it wasn't just money.
Participants worldwide volunteered, performed acts of kindness and gave their voices, time and goods.
What do you think, Tenors?
Do you think we'll beat that this year?
All right, Pam, my Give-A-Meter is ready to rock.
I've got those pies I baked that I'm taking to the homeless shelter and I'm donating a bunch of food to my friend's food drive.
Wait, it doesn't have to just be on Giving Tuesday, does it?
I can spread it out, right?
Absolutely.
And I love it, Rye.
I'm going to volunteer at my local food pantry.
This is going to be the best Giving Tuesday ever.
Maybe we should give some 10 new snaps to one of our listeners.
But first, here's a quick note for the grown-ups.
It's time for 10 new snaps.
Over on Spotify, The Elemental Master left a comment that said, It's my B-Day.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday, Elemental Master.
And also on Spotify, Cody Bronx asked for a snap.
So here you go, my friend.
And two extra notes for the grownups.
You can now get ad-free versions of our episodes when you join the Tenors Club on our website.
And if you want to help support the Ten News, you can make a tax-deductible donation at the link in our show notes.
The whole team thanks you for your support.
The 10 News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and part of the Airwave Podcast Network.
The 10 News creative team is spending some extra time volunteering this season and includes Tracy Notta Crooks, Adam the Great Bambino, Bernard Brian Not Ryan, Douglas the Duke of Earl Davis and Carson Not-So-Harry Potter.
Big thanks to Owen Not Slowing Down for anybody.
Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright Albright, Albright and show creator Tracy Takes the Leads Kaplan.
I'm Pamela Kirkland.
And I'm Ryan Willard.
Thanks for listening to the 10 News.
