SPRINGFIELD — Valley Gives Day may have seen its final occurrence in May, but the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts will continue to promote the spirit of the event on Nov. 27 with the national Giving Tuesday movement.
In 2012, the Community Foundation began holding Valley Gives Day on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, known as “Giving Tuesday,” to fundraise for local nonprofits. The Foundation moved Valley Gives Day to May in 2016 and announced that it would discontinue the one-day giving event this past spring. But the organization is promoting the national Giving Tuesday movement through an advertising and media campaign, using the hashtag #ValleyGivingTuesday.
“We don’t look at it as ending the effort, but the particular model in terms of a 24-hour giving day is not going to be repeated,” said Sara Talcott, director of marketing and communications at the Community Foundation.
Talcott said that the organization is shifting its focus to encourage giving year-round, but advertises Giving Tuesday “as a way to continue the movement we’ve developed around the community around promoting generosity and giving back to the community.”
The Community Foundation will also track the #ValleyGivingTuesday hashtag and choose three organizations — one from each county in the Pioneer Valley — for an award of $1,127 to symbolize the date.
Various local organizations are participating in Giving Tuesday, including Kestrel Land Trust.
Kristin DeBoer, executive director of the Trust, said that she is grateful for past support from the Community Foundation and believes that the switch to promoting national Giving Tuesday “seems to make a lot of sense.”
“I think it’s a great opportunity for people who love the land of the Valley to support Kestrel Land Trust,” DeBoer said of Giving Tuesday. “We are committed to leveraging every private donation with additional public grants to preserve farms and forests and create conservation areas throughout the Valley.”
All local participating organizations can be found on the Giving Tuesday website.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.