# Giving Tuesday and the man who was Thursday

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/12/01/giving-tuesday-man-thursday/
- Published: 2015-12-01T11:52:15+00:00
- Author: John Baguley

In G K Chesterton’s novel ‘The man who was Thursday’ it turns out that all the seven
leaders of an anarchist group (bad) are code named after days of the week, and turn
out to be policemen (good) in disguise except for Sunday (confusing). Now we have
Black Friday (bad?) followed by Cyber Monday (probably worse) and Giving Tuesday(
definitely good) followed by confusion until Christmas. Giving Tuesday #givingtuesday
is now a global phenomena with the United States, Singapore, Canada, much of Latin
America and Israel taking part. It was started in the UK by CAF backed by Blackbaud
and has taken firm hold, but only because it is preceded by a gargantuan spending
spree that charities think will make people feel so guilty they will give something
to charity to salve their conscience. That has never struck me as a good idea, no
matter the total amount that charity might receive on the day. Smuggling giving 
into a spending spree or policemen into anarchist groups can lead to unintended 
consequences (bad).

If people give because they understand the cause, feel for it and make a conscientious
decision they will give more and give again and again. If they give through guilt
they give once and a much smaller amount. Of course, there will be those who say“
I choose to give instead of taking part in Black Friday” but that is hardly any 
better as a reason, and may end up inoculating the donor against that big give at
Christmas, which is a real time to approach potential donors. So, what is to be 
done? I love that John Lewis teamed up with Age Concern over its moving Christmas
ad and that FatFace is giving £250,000 to local charities instead of discounting
on Black Friday. That’s the way to go – work with companies as it is they who are
discounting each other to death. Withdraw from Giving Tuesday and go it alone to
develop a proper relationship with your donors and receive a much higher income 
in the long-term.

So, what happened to the man who was Thursday? Well in the end he awoke from the
dream and so will you. Don’t get involved in huge schemes that promise high returns
and instead treat your donors as the thinking individuals that they are whatever
day of the week it is.

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John Baguley CEO Group IFC www.groupifc.com

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