IRC Pass notes: #GivingTuesday

Published on: 19/11/2019

#GivingTuesday? Is that in between Mean Monday and Wistful Wednesday? No smartarse, it's a global event that started in America after Thanksgiving which happens on the last Thursday in November and is followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Oh, not ANOTHER one. What do you mean?

Well there's Halloween and then Thanksgiving and then the commercialisation of the festive season. Is this just yet another way to get you to spend your money? In a way, but this time for good causes, trying to counter some of that commercialism you just moaned about.

Oops, sorry, the present buying must be getting to me. Quite.

Ok then, so why are we talking about this? Well, it's not just an American 'thing' anymore. It's actually taken off globally and more than 100 countries around the world take part.

What do you mean 'take part'? A lot of organisations use #GivingTuesday to kick start their festive campaigns, get supporters thinking about their cause whilst doing festive shopping, and hopefully encourage them to do some giving at the same time.

Huh. Makes sense. But why are we interested in it? This year is the first year that #GivingTuesday is taking place in the Netherlands. And #GivingTuesdayNL is starting strong, with IRC as one of the initiating partners along with Geef and Goed Nalaten we have nearly 200 NGOs signed up to take part.

Wow! Quite big then! How does is this relevant IRC though? I didn't think you raised money from the public? Well, as with all NGOs IRC is always trying to obtain unrestricted funding that gives it the flexibility to follow its mission to promote a systems approach to safe and sustainable WASH.

Say what now? We talked about WASH and systems earlier this year, did you forget?

Erm, it's been a while, remind me? WASH is Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. And systems are all the things you need for safe and sustainable services. Things like laws, regulations, monitoring, ensuring there is enough money not only to build infrastructure but also to run, maintain and fix it. Do you remember now?

It's coming back to me... Sigh

And the unrestricted funding you talked about? That's money that often comes either from the public or from a few very special donors. It means that you can spend the money where you need to most, so on programmes that might not be as attractive for other donors or find it harder to quantify their positive effects.

Fair enough. So basically, it means you have flexibility to do what you need to do where you need to do it. Exactly! Whilst still of course trying to contribute towards delivering safe and sustainable WASH services in the areas in which we work.

So back to #GivingTuesday. What is IRC actually doing? Well, we launch our campaign on the day itself (Tuesday 3rd December). We'll be sharing stories about WASH in health care facilities and schools and we're programming in several hours of live content in conjunction with the other founding partners for #GivingTuesday in the Netherlands in the form of interviews, videos and so on.

Fun! Where do I find that? Glad you asked! You can find out more about the day here and follow us on the day itself here and on our social media channels (Twitter and Facebook).

Do say: How can I help fund sustainable systems?

Don't say: Isn't this just another way to get me to spend my money?

Read our other IRC Pass notes:

IRC Pass notes: All systems go!

IRC Pass notes: Sanitation and Hygiene

IRC Pass notes: Safe and sustainable water

IRC Pass notes: Measuring & Monitoring Systems Change

IRC Pass notes: Financing WASH

IRC Pass notes: Fragile States