• by Les Luchter , November 27, 2023

 

As of Monday morning, “health and healthcare” nonprofits topped this year’s Giving Tuesday social media conversations, according to research from Pulsar in partnership with GivingTuesday, itself a nonprofit that began the annual day of giving 11 years ago.

Last year, GivingTuesday reports, 37 million adults in the U.S. donated $3.1 billion. That dollar figure represented a 15% increase compared over 2021, and a 25% increase over 2020. The number of donators increased 6% from 2021.

Here are just five of this year’s health-related Giving Tuesday campaigns:

Media activities from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital include a six-hour “Live Give-a-Thon”  on TikTok co-hosted by social media celebrity Santa J. Claus, with such guests as actress/singer Mandy Moore, actor Charlie Rocket and singer-songwriter Harry Hudson. Other St. Jude tie-ins include segments on HSN and NBC’s “Today,” fundraising by gamers and content creators on Twitch, and an “unboxing” of St. Jude merchandise by actress Emma Roberts. Retail tie-ins include Williams-Sonoma and Brooks Brothers.

Through a partnership with nonprofit Matter and its Matter 360 initiative, medical apparel retailer Careismatic Brands will match each Tuesday purchase by donating one of the same item -- up to 25,000 total units -- to healthcare professionals in disaster zones and developing nations. Earlier this year, Careismatic said, it donated more than 500,000 pounds of medical-related inventory through Matter 360 to healthcare workers in Bolivia, Liberia, Senegal, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, and the U.S.

Christie Pearce Rampone, Olympic and FIFA soccer champion, and Bode Miller, Olympic ski champion, have taken to social media to help 1MD Nutrition promote a 50%-off deal on its entire line of supplements, with 5% of all online sales – up to $50,000 -- being donated to  Vitamin Angels, a nonprofit that works to improve nutrition for underserved pregnant women, infants, and young children worldwide.

Starting Tuesday and continuing through the holiday season, consumers making purchases from D2C food retailer Get Maine Lobster can opt in to have 5% of their purchase donated to Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of children with physical deformities through reconstructive surgery. “Fresh Start and Get Maine Lobster share in the belief that collective generosity, paired with a love for lobster, can truly make a difference,” the partners said in a press release.

Hot Topic Foundation, which helps fund nonprofits involved with music, arts and mental health, will match up to $100,000 in donations to Mental Health America for the administration on anonymous mental health screens. The century-old nonprofit says that 5.1 million people use its screenings annually and that, thanks to Hot Topic, each $25 donation from Tuesday through Dec. 31 will now fund 20 instead of 10 screenings.