The Greatness Behind Giving Tuesday
A Ten News Deep Dive: Episode 616
It's almost turkey time... then holiday shopping time... THEN Giving Tuesday! Tune in to learn about the mission behind Giving Tuesday, and how you can get involved on December 2, 2025 š
Special guest Susan McPherson, founder & CEO of McPherson Strategies, joins us to share how she helped bring Giving Tuesday to life. š
Plus, meet five incredible kids making big impacts in their communities š
And wait until you hear how much was donated on Giving Tuesday in 2024... š¤Æ
Resources
Get Connected
š«¶ Help fund The Ten News by donating today!
āļø Subscribe to our Ten News-letter!
š± Follow the show on Instagram: @thetennews
š§ Email us at hello@thetennews.com if you have any questions or want to submit audio!
š±ļø Visit thetennews.com for additional resources, our online store, the Ten'ers Club, and more!
Transcript:
INT. TEN NEWS STUDIO
SFX: šµ [Upbeat holiday jingleābells, chimes, and cheerful horns]
PAM: Hey Ryan, youāre looking a little extra festive. Uh, why are you wearing a Santa hat, jingle bell socks, and... is that a āGive-O-Meterā sweater?
RYAN: Yes, yes it is, Pam! Because the holidays are here, and one of my favorite holidays is coming upā¦ Giving Tuesday!
PAM: Wait, youāre treating Giving Tuesday likeā¦ a holiday?
RYAN: Oh, it is a holiday, Pam! Thereās Thanksgiving, where I eat and say what Iām thankful for. Then Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, where I start my holiday shopping, and finallyā¦ the grand finale, Giving Tuesday! A day when everyone can share the joy by donating, volunteering, or doing something kind for others.
PAM: Oh, I am so on board for that holiday. Letās get this show going! Iām Pamela Kirkland.
RYAN: And Iām Ryan Willard. Itās Friday, November 21st.
PAM: We are the Ten News, and this is our Giving Tuesday Deep Dive.
āTRACY: So, um, okay, Ryan, I have a little treat for you. I know that you are getting so excited, so excited about Giving Tuesday.
RYAN: I am sooooo excited! But Iām getting a little overwhelmed trying to figure out how to give back and and and I just canāt believe that someone INVENTED a holiday to give back and help othersā
TRACY: Well, I know someone who was involved with getting this whole thing started. <SFX Knock, knock, knock> Hold on a second. Let me, let her in. Susan, come on in. Susan, Susan, can you introduce yourself to Ryan and to our tenors? Absolutely. Well, hello Ryan. And I'm thrilled that you love Giving Tuesday 'cause 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.
RYAN: I am starstruck, and Iām just going to sit here aaaaandā¦listen.
SUSAN MCPHERSON: 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 yeah, take us back. Like how, how did it get started? Well, and again, I don't wanna 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, uh, the then CEO of the 92nd Street Y, Henry Tims, along with. Some of his team, a woman named Asha Curran, who actually leads Giving Tuesday today. Um, and a gentleman named Aaron Sherinian (SHARE-ih-NEE-en), 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 Jane.
It was a big climate conference and we were attending an event. Richard Branson was speaking. Virgin was, was, um, leading the, the event, and Henry and Aaron were drawing on a napkin. Their idea to create an annual day of giving that would be at the very, you know, moment in time, the week of, um, you know, Thanksgiving, black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
And the goal was those holidays, if you can call them that. Uh, Cyber Monday, black Friday are all about shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping. Mm-hmm. 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 gonna be a big thing.
And now it is on six, taking place on six continents, touching over 100,000 organizations and millions of people. So voila. That's amazing.
If you think back to 2010, 2011, I mean, we were well into having internet access and shopping online, so it seemed like the right time 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. Mm-hmm. But it was like we were doing all this, why can't we also make time? To think about others, make time to give, make time to volunteer, so that kind of explains how, how it came about. I was just also gonna add no one owns Giving Tuesday. Mm-hmm. Right. I mean, even the logo, if you were to use the logo on, on your show or whatever, you could change it.
Mm-hmm. 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's, mm-hmm. Yeah. And that actually leads me to my next question. So. They had this idea you're all to, you know, 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? Well, it took, 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.
And the way we were able to grow it, and of course, I'm not intimately evolved anymore, mm-hmm. But we have nonprofit clients that come 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, as this moment, um, 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. Mm-hmm. Because the philanthropy culture was very, something very much unique to the United States. And the fact now that it's operating in, 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? Mm-hmm. We all want in some shape, way, 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. Good ideas, that are shared, and then it will spark other ideas.
Mm-hmm. 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? Mm-hmm. 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.
RYAN: Okayā¦I just gotta start local. Well, I love eating, and want other people to eatā¦ OH! My friends SJ and Clauson are organizing a food drive, so Iāll gather some food and help them with that! Okay, BRB! <SFX Ryan runs away>
PAM: This is a message for the grownups! If you want to get in on the Giving Tuesday spirit, you can still donate to The Ten News! Our show is made possible by generous donations, and theyāre all tax-deductible! If youād like to make a donation, a link is in our show notes. Speaking of the show, back to it!
RYAN: How cool was Susan?
PAM: Super cool. That was so inspiring! Giving Tuesday really is about everyone doing their part. And weāve found some young people who are going above and beyond to give back to their community!
RYAN: Here are Five Fantastic Young People! Number 5: After her senior year of high school, Maya Mor founded Girls Run Global, a non-profit that teaches girls running and life skills. She first worked with a team of 70 girls, ages 13-19, in Morogoro, Tanzania. With the help of sponsors, she brought running shoes, backpacks, socks, sports bras, granola bars, and notebooks for everyone. Mor believes that running is a sport with a unique ability to teach people skills they can apply to other hard things in their lives.
PAM: Number 4: 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 non-profit called Little Legacies, which mobilizes volunteers of any age. Since then, Little Legacies has created a library for a childrenās home and sent 3,000 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.
RYAN: Number 3 is a little legend with a great name, Ryan Hickman. When Ryan was 3 Ā½ years old, he visited the rePlanet recycling center in California and found his lifeās mission. By the time he was 7 years old, he was the CEO, manager, and employee of Ryanās 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 clean-up projects and hands-on environmental education programs. Ryan is responsible for recycling nearly two million cans and bottles, keeping them out of our oceans and landfills.
PAM: Number 2 is Autumn Peltier (pelt-SHAY), a Canadian indigenous activist, who is often referred to as a āwater warrior.ā Peltier is an Anishinaabe (uh-NIH-shu-nah-bay) advocate for clean water and a member of the Wikwemikong (WICK-weh-ma-kong) 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, āWhere I come from, Iām 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?ā Autumn was nominated for the International Childrenās Peace Prize.
RYAN: And our last Fantastic Young Person isā¦ Tejasvi Manoj, who was Time Magazineās 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, aged 60 and older, on what online scams look like, how to analyze suspicious emails and messages, and provides links to report them. I think Manoj is super cool because usually, grown-ups are protecting kids, but sheās a kid whoās helping older grown-ups protect themselves!
PAM: And that was Five Fantastic Young People. They all show that no act of kindness is too small to make a difference. Now onto our Trivia Master, Owen.
<SFX Trivia Room door opens>
OWEN: Thanks, Pam! Alright, weāve talked all about Giving Tuesdayā¦and how generous humans can be. But do you know how much U.S. donors gave for Giving Tuesday in 2024?
Was itā¦
$979,321,649 dollars
$1.23 billion dollars
$2.67 billion dollars or
$3.6 billion dollars
Alright Tenāers, did you guess it? The answer isā¦D! 2024 was a record year for generosity. In 2022 and 2023, the U.S. gave about $3.1 billion dollars, but had a $500 million dollar increase in 2024! But it wasnāt just money, participants worldwide volunteered, performed acts of kindness, and gave their voices, time, and goods. What do you think, Tenāers? Do you think weāll beat that this year?
INT. TEN NEWS STUDIO
RYAN: Alright, Pam, my give-o-meter is ready to rock. Iāve got those pies I baked that Iām taking to the homeless shelterā¦ and Iām donating a bunch of food to my friendsā food drive! It doesnāt just have to be on Giving Tuesday, right? I can spread it out?!
PAM: Absolutely. And I love it, Ry! Iām going to (INSERT WHAT YOU WANNA DO PAM!)
RYAN: This is going to be the best Giving Tuesday EVER! Maybe we should give some Ten News Snaps to one of our listeners?
PAM: But first, hereās a quick note for the grownups.
<AD BREAK>
RYAN: Itās time for Ten News Snaps!
PAM: Over on Spotify, the Elemental Master left a comment and said, āItās my bday.ā Happy birthday!
RYAN: Happy birthday, Elemental Master! And also on Spotify, Cody Bronx asked for a snap. So here you go, my friend! <SFX snaps>
PAM: And two extra notes for the grown-ups, you can now get ad-free versions of our episodes when you join the Tenāers Club on our website.
RYAN: 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!
PAM: āThe Ten Newsā is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts, and part of the Airwave Podcast Network.
RYAN: The Ten News creative team is spending some extra time volunteering this season and includes Tracey Not a 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 Slowin Down for Anybody.
PAM: Our Production Director is Jeremiah Tittle, and our Executive Producers are Donald Albright, Albright, Albright! and show creator Tracy Takes the Leeds Kaplan. Iām Pamela Kirkland.
RYAN: And Iām Ryan Willard, thanks for listening to the Ten News.
