If you’re anything like us, you’re probably starting to plan for your socially distanced Thanksgiving and the rapid frenzy to the holiday season that follows that. Aside from the tasty food and time spent with family and friends that comes along with the holiday season, one thing that we’re always looking forward to is Giving Tuesday, a worldwide day of giving, which happens to fall on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. That’s December 1st this year.

A Brief History of Giving Tuesday

Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-henry-timms-was-inspired-to-create-giving-tuesday

With such a massive movement towards the power of philanthropy that comes with this day of giving, it only makes sense to begin our story with the history of Giving Tuesday. Back in October of 2012, Henry Timms the deputy executive director of 92nd Street Y, New York pondered the idea of transforming the consumer sprint that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday into a more philanthropic lens. It was here that the concept of Giving Tuesday was born. This idea of harnessing the power of giving during the holiday season was quickly endorsed by tech giants such as Mashable, Skype, Groupon, and Facebook for support. Ever since then, Giving Tuesday has gone on to create an entire movement towards one simple cause: doing good during the holiday season.

Placed just a few days after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday offers the world a chance to truly give back to the communities that make it whole. While admittedly, this is just a single day of streamlined fundraising, it allows people the opportunity to unleash the true power of giving back during this holiday season amongst all the ways that they celebrate with their friends and family.

Since its inception in 2012, Giving Tuesday has changed the world by creating a channel in which millions of people can give back to their communities through the power of various participating nonprofits.

During the first year of Giving Tuesday in 2012, an estimated 10 million dollars were raised for charity. In 2019, $511 million was raised in just 24 hours on Giving Tuesday.

While the world is certainly facing unprecedented times in 2020, we are certain that the world will continue to feel a spark towards philanthropy and the nature of giving back this Giving Tuesday.

Our Own History With Giving Tuesday

Here at 33 Buckets, we are powered by donations to do what our mission strives for: transforming lives through the power of clean water. There’s nothing more incredible than the feeling of changing the course of someone’s life, and we want to do everything we can to share that feeling with our audience. On previous Giving Tuesdays, we have focused on maximizing the reach we can have for two reasons:

To give as many people as possible the opportunity to provide someone with clean water for life through a donation.
To gain as much funding as possible to create maximal impact in creating life-long access to clean water within our partnered communities throughout Peru.

In total, we have raised over $15,000 throughout these concerted days of Giving - including Arizona Gives Day, World Water Day, and Giving Tuesday.

Last year for Giving Tuesday, we debuted our feature film from the community of Huilcapata, which highlighted the truly transformative nature of what happens when people give. Since partnering with them in 2016, Huilcapata has gone on to receive national recognition for their sustainability efforts, which they have contributed to gaining access to clean water. There are many more communities like Huilcapata that can grow from having life long access to clean water. Projects like this would not be possible without our supporters and donors, especially on global days of giving like Giving Tuesday.

Our Giving Tuesday Plans

Young girl from the community of Myrasco smiles for the camera.

This year is unlike any other year. We are learning a new way of living with this devastating virus and coming together in ways like never before, all while socially distanced. After concluding our COVID-19 campaign in 5 different communities throughout Peru, we were approached by the President of the Ccorca District of Cusco. The Ccorca District of Cusco is home to 9 communities and 915 families. Currently, there are approximately 3,600 people without consistent access to clean water in this area. In collaboration with our local partner, Sustainable Development Studies (SDS), we’ve connected with Mayor Wilber Lucio Huamán Cconcha of the Ccorca District. Together, we’ve made it our goal to empower each of the 9 communities with the equipment, tools, and knowledge to achieve clean water access on a community-wide level. But we need YOUR help!

With the world facing all sorts of unprecedented challenges, we wanted to recenter on one thing that seems to create a bridge between all cultures: Art.

Introducing the 2020 Art-for-Agua Auction.

To ensure that all 9 communities within the Ccorca District will gain reliable access to purified drinking water, we are excited to launch our very first ever online auction! We are incredibly grateful to have partnered with over 20 artists and vendors from across the nation to raise money for the 915 families living without consistent access to clean water. We will have a variety of pieces from original oil paintings, digital prints, mixed media canvases, to Peruvian textiles, jewelry, and even a chocolate arrangement!

This Giving Tuesday, we wanted to increase the number of ways our supporters can give. We are offering our Art for Agua Auction to create a cycle of giving that continues to give. You buy a piece from our auction (which you can give to a loved one during this holiday season) and your gift gives a person in Peru access to clean water for life. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving.