Participation Guide for Youth + Parents

This toolkit is for young hand-raisers around the world who are striving to be the change makers of their generation (plus their teachers, coaches, mentors, parents, and champions). We’re excited to have you join us on GivingTuesday, the global day of generosity, happening this DECEMBER 3, 2024.

Click here to print this as a PDF

How to Participate in GivingTuesdaySpark

1. Read through this toolkit and check out the GivingTuesdaySpark ideas page for inspiration

2. Rally your friends  and decide what project you’d like to do after school on December 3, 2024 then tell us your plans.

3. Share your project! Share with your local newspaper, radio, or TV stations. Share with your school. On December 3, share on social media using #GivingTuesday and #GivingTuesdaySpark!
   

Things to Know

What is GivingTuesday?

GivingTuesday started as hair-brained experiment. We thought: “could we start a hashtag that would encourage more people around the world to participate in giving back to their local communities?” So we tried it. And after spending a lot of time explaining to adults what a hashtag was 🤓 (this was back in 2012), the GivingTuesday movement grew into the biggest giving movement in the world!

GivingTuesday happens every Tuesday, but our big celebration event happens on the Tuesday after American Thanksgiving. GivingTuesday inspires millions of people - in every country and territory in the world - to show up and give back to causes and issues that matter to them. The goal is to create a massive wave of generosity that lasts well beyond that day, and impacts every person on the planet.

Every year, the #GivingTuesday hashtag gets 21B impressions across social channels. Celebs, influencers, brands, businesses, and every day people all come together to celebrate generosity. Even Charli D’Amelio posted about GivingTuesday a few years ago! 😳

📅 GivingTuesday takes place on December 3, 2024 this year. Put it on your calendar! 📅

What is #GivingTuesday Spark?

Led by and for young people, GivingTuesdaySpark is all about lifting the voices of young people and spreading the culture of generosity in communities all over the world. On GivingTuesday, GivingTuesdaySpark will lead volunteer projects, acts of kindness, and epic givebacks. GivingTuesdaySpark has been cultivated thanks to the vision of young changemakers, and is all about encouraging young people to take action around the causes they care about most.

Step 1: Getting Started

Identify a project or good deed that addresses an issue that’s close to your heart. We encourage activities of all sizes, from acts of kindness to large-scale community service projects. 

Here are a few tips:

•  Get started as early as you can. 

•  Rally your friends. Ask what issues matter to them. Tap into your existing resources and thinking about asking your local nonprofits how you can help or get involved.

•  Although doing your project on December 3, 2024 is best,  you may need to do all or part of your project on the weekend before or after GivingTuesday and that’s OK! 

Project Ideas 💡

You can find a lot of ideas at GivingTuesdaySpark.org. Here are just a few thought-starters – the sky is really the limit: 

1. 🌳 Help the environment: clean up a neighborhood playground, park or beach; plant a garden; harvest fruits & vegetables; or plant trees

2. 🎒 Support your peers in need: collect and donate school supplies; run a toy drive before the holiday season; visit a children’s hospital

3. 💜 Spread generosity: make a generosity wall to spread kindness; write random-acts-of-kindness prompts and put them in public spaces

4. 🏚️ Help the homeless: prepare care kits and deliver them to homeless shelters; volunteer at a soup kitchen; have a clothing drive and donate to a shelter

5. 👵 Assist the elderly: provide help at the supermarket; write and send out “get well soon” cards; visit a nursing home and put on a performance or concert; provide meals

6. 🐶 Help animals: volunteer at an animal shelter; set up a donation drive to support animals in need; advocate for animal adoption

7. 🎖️ Support our servicemen and women; write thank you messages to first responders; spend time with retired Veterans; send letters to troops overseas; sew “comfort quilts” for children with parents overseas

8.  👁️‍🗨️ Address bullying: ask your school or after-school activity to set up a “stomp out bullying” discussion; offer words of kindness in-school and on social media

9. 🍞 Feed the hungry: Create bagged lunches, insert kind notes, and give them to anyone who might be hungry. #HashtagLunchbag

10. 👩‍🏫 Teach Generosity: Work with teachers and the administration at your school to organize in-class learning or tutoring projects using lesson plans about generosity at GivingTuesdaySpark.org
    

Step 2 - Building Your Project 🐱‍💻

Design your project.

Your project can be designed in many ways. Much of this depends on how many volunteers you hope to rally.

• 📋 Set up an easy registration system. This can be as simple as providing a contact name, number or email address where volunteers can sign up. Google Forms or SignUpGenius are great free options.

• 🚥 Be mindful of safety – Before picking any project, be sure to assess the safety risks and make a checklist. For example, if your project involves picking up litter and there’s a possibility of broken glass, be sure to make sure you have gloves available. If you are working with volunteers, advise them of any safety concerns. We recommend always having at least one trusted grown up present.

Think about what to measure 📊.

On December 4 (the day after GivingTuesday) we’ll ask you to report back on your project. Think about how you can quantify the impact of your project. For example:

• If you’re picking up litter in your neighborhood, can you weigh ⚖️ the garbage bags to find out how much you collected?

• If you’re passing out care kits to people experiencing homelessness, how many bags 🛍️ did you give away? 

• How many volunteers joined your project? 👨‍👨‍👧‍👧

Spread the word

• 📣 Build excitement and interest leading up to your project. The more actively you communicate, the more engaged your volunteers will be.

• 🏫 See if your school and the after-school activities you are engaged in can share this toolkit and organize a project.

• 🖨️ There are graphics and flyers available here. 

• 💌 Spread the word with email, Whatsapp, or social media.

• 📰 Pitch it to your local newspaper - they love stories like this!

• 🌏 People want to know their time is being invested in something that will make a difference. In your recruiting messages, get people excited and engaged by emphasizing the global scope of GivingTuesday and the importance of the particular cause that you have selected to support. 

• 👭 Launch a buddy system. Being asked by a friend is the #1 way in which many new people get involved. So urge those who sign up early to consider inviting friends to join them!

• As you get closer to December 3, 2024, send a quick text 📱 to all participants to confirm all activity details with your participants with plenty of time to spare. Tell them what to bring and possibly how to dress for the weather ❄️. Provide the date and time, address, directions 🗺️ for the project; describe what will occur and who to see when they arrive; request they contact you if they have a change in plans and cannot attend. 

• 🎗️ Send another reminder messages a couple of days before to everyone who signed up to participate.

Step 3: The Big Day 📅

Welcome your attendees:

• 💥 Bring the HYPE! Spend a few moments talking about GivingTuesday, remind everyone that they’re participating along with young people all over the world, and share a little bit about who you will help as a result of your project.

• 📢 Announce logistics: Assign tasks, discuss the steps for completing the project, and mention any safety precautions you have in place.

Capture the GOOD.

Invite your participants to make videos to describe what they’re doing for GivingTuesday. 🤳 Get creative and do a TikTok. You can also assign someone to walk around and collect photos 📸 of your volunteers in action (with participants’ permission). Then post on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, or whatever y’all are using these days, using #GivingTuesdaySpark + #GivingTuesday. 

Note to parents: sharing on social media is optional, we respect your child’s privacy. Doing the project and learning how amazing it feels to give is the more important part!

Wrap Up Your Event

At the end of the project:

• ✨ Clean up – Ask everyone do their part! Have leaders guide volunteers in pitching in to make the site look better than it did when they arrived. All materials should be used or donated. All tools should be returned to their respective areas. 

• 🏆 Recognition – Take and post a group photo with hashtags #GivingTuesdaySpark + #GivingTuesday

• 💭 Reflection – A powerful community building tool involves taking a moment to reflect on the day’s events. This can take many forms: a group discussion among volunteers, writing about your experiences, and creating a photo journal or video about the project are just some ideas.

• 💻 Submit the results of your project to the GivingTuesdaySpark team! Visit GivingTuesdaySpark.org and share how you participated. Include your photos, videos, and how many people participated in your event. We want to record your impact as part of the biggest social good movement of all time!

Make sure to keep in touch throughout the year and consider leading a GivingTuesdaySpark Chapter!

Generosity and giving doesn’t just stop once GivingTuesday is over. 💖 To change our society, we’ll need to build a habit of generosity, which is why we do smaller scale activities every Tuesday throughout the year. Find the weekly giving prompts at GivingTuesday.org.

We always want to know how you are doing and how we can support your social impact work! As long as you filled out the Join form on our homepage, we’ll be able to email you to keep you updated on what’s happening in the GivingTuesday movement, share resources that can help you effect change, and how we can help amplify your platform, so let’s keep in touch! You can email us anytime or DM our Instagram.

• Take it a step further and start a Spark chapter! You and your friends could work together on generosity initiatives big or small and you would be joining a global movement of generosity and change-making and even be added to our global map of community campaigns and Spark chapters. Learn more about leading a GivingTuesdaySpark Chapter here.

Notes on Youth Privacy

Privacy 

We’re committed to your privacy. When youths register their project, that information goes to the GivingTuesday team only via a secure server. We will never, under any circumstances this information or give it to anyone outside of the GivingTuesday team. Your email address will only be used to communicate directly with you, to follow-up on your students’ project and to let you know about next year’s #GivingTuesdaySpark activation. You can read more about our privacy policy here.

Sharing Your Project on Social Media

We believe strongly that when we share our generosity, it inspires others to be generous as well, creating a ripple effect that will change our world. While we encourage social sharing, please know that sharing on social is not at all required for you to participate in #GivingTuesdaySpark. Please tag us @GivingTuesday and use the hashtag #GivingTuesdaySpark. We may share your great work!

Tips for Social Media Safety

• A good way to keep kids safe online is to post to “friends only” on Facebook, or to a locked Twitter or Instagram account. Keep in mind our team won’t be able to see it or share it if you post that way though. If you would like us to share your student’s project, you can share publicly and tag @GivingTuesdaySpark + #GivingTuesdaySpark or email us the images and a brief description at spark@givingtuesday.org.

• For your child’s safety, please turn off any geolocation tagging when you post on social and don’t “check-in” anywhere.

Photo/Video Use Policy

We will be  sharing social media posts with the hashtag #GivingTuesdaySpark on GivingTuesday’s social media channels on and after GivingTuesday, as well as sharing photos/videos of youth projects with media outlets.  We will not be sharing children’s full names or their precise locations publicly. When you register your project, there’s a checkbox that acts as a photo release. If you would rather your students’ images not be used for these purposes, please email us at spark@givingtuesday.org.