GivingTuesday, a self proclaimed holiday that falls every year on the Tuesday after the shopping mania of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” encourages people to donate to charitable causes. This year, UW-Madison has made it easy for Badgers to “do good” and refocus their efforts on their community.
Anyone can take part in UW’s GivingTuesday campaign. Organized by the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, the campaign aims to get people involved and working as a community.
On their campaign page, you can find a variety of different causes across campus to support. The causes are split up into categories such as “student support,” “academic excellence,” “Wisconsin medicine” and “community impact” for a total of 34 departments and causes in total. All of the organizations are unique to UW-Madison and donations will directly impact the campus community.
Although there are many departments and causes to choose from, “Help UW Health Respond to COVID-19” is already one of the most popular categories having already received about $210,000 in donations.
“The major focus this year is on needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the university,” said Tod Pritchard, who works at the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association.
The GivingTuesday campaign even offers opportunities for “gift matching” so that participants can double their impact. Donations up to $250,00 will be doubled by the Steve Stricker American Family Insurance Foundation for the UW Health COVID-19 Response fund.
“Not only does this fund help purchase needed pandemic response supplies, it also helps UW Health employees with things such as child care,” stated Pritchard. “These folks are truly heroes, and they need our help.”
To learn more about GivingTuesday or make a donation, visit https://jumpstart.supportuw.org/pages/giving-tuesday-5.
