Giving Tuesday, 2025 - Are You Ready?

Are you ready for Giving Tuesday, 2025? Since 2012 this global giving event has tried to unleash the power of radical generosity, drawing donors to social benefit and nonprofit organizations throughout the world. This year it will be held on December 2nd.

Is your organization ready?  

Visit this page to learn more. 

Since 1993 I've maintained a list of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs and plotted locations of more than 100 on my map.  My goal for the past 32 years has been to help programs in every poverty area get the support they need to connect kids and volunteers in on-going learning and mentoring, not just a few high profile programs.  

If you look through the list of programs and visit their websites, you can usually find a donations page.  I'm not sure you'll find a special Giving Tuesday page.

I wrote a long article about Giving Tuesday in 2023 and shared images of several Chicago youth programs to illustrate how people beyond the nonprofit organization could be using their media and influence to draw attention to this event, and to the various youth-serving programs in their community.  I hope you'll read it.

I wrote another long article in January 2024, showing my goal of creating platforms, like Amazon.com, that attract volunteers, donors, parents, media and others to lists of youth serving programs and to donation pages that encourage giving and aggregate information about how much is being given to individual organizations, and to different neighborhoods.

In that article I showed one giving platform, attracting donors to Democratic candidates throughout the USA.  That's an example of what type of platform could be created to draw attention and donors to all of the various youth-serving programs in Chicago or different places.

Does anyone have something like this yet?  If yes, please share the link.  In the meantime, look at how other nonprofits are using their websites and social media to attract support. Borrow from good ideas. Share you own.

Every November since 2011 I've launched a campaign to attract funding to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, by giving a gift to recognize my December 19th birthday.  I'll be 79 this year and with your help I'll reach 80 and still be doing this work. 

I'll still promote this on-going Fund T/MI page, too. 

Thanks for reading. Good luck on your year-end fund raising. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram and/or Mastodon to share your ideas and your websites. 

Giving Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Next Monday is the annual Giving Tuesday event, which attempts to motivate donors to reach into their pockets and provide support for non-profit organizations in the USA and around the world.  Visit this page to learn more. 

Since 1993 I've maintained a list of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs and plotted locations of more than 100 on my map.  My goal has been to help programs in every poverty area get the support they need to connect kids and volunteers in on-going learning and mentoring, not just a few high profile programs.  

If you look through the list of programs and visit their websites, you can usually find a donations page.  I'm not sure you'll find a special GivingTuesday page.  A few years ago Forefront organized an ILGive campaign and provided a searchable list of participating non-profits. This graphic shows the 2017 campaign website, which is now only available as an archive. 

For the past couple of years I've been trying to find someone who was aggregating information about youth serving organizations who were promoting #GivingTuesday on social media, and hopefully, their websites.  So far, I've not found anyone doing this.

Below are a few promotions I have seen.

826 Chicago - website

Gads Hill Center - website 

Girls in the Game - website

Alive Center - Naperville - website

Project SYNCERE - website 

Polished Pebbles - website 

IEEE Foundation - Try Engineering - website

CBO 4 Success - website 

Chicago Scholars - website

I point to more than 100 Chicago area youth programs from my website, but while many have social media accounts, not many use them regularly, and not many have been posting Giving Tuesday campaign posts.  If I see more I'll add a few to this list.

That does not mean programs are not raising money.  Here's just one example, from Tutoring Chicago. This was posted on LinkedIn. 

While I try to maintain an accurate list of Chicago area youth tutor, mentor and learning programs I don't have the talent and/or help needed to do all that needs to be done to draw attention and resources to tutor/mentor programs throughout the region and in other cities.  

Yet someone should be building a website that shows fund raising campaigns of more than the few organizations I am able to highlight in a single blog article. 

Below is a graphic from a presentation I created nearly 10 years ago showing the type of fund raising platform I was hoping to build, as an enhancement to the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator that we built in 2008-9.  See it in this PDF presentation.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to recruit the team, find the investment, or the talent to build this, and I no longer am able to maintain the Program Locator which we built in the 1990s and 2000s to collect and share this information. If you visit this page you can see my vision about using maps to build program capacity.

It may be a bridge too far for me, but the need is as urgent in 2023 as it was when I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993. 

That's why I've been reaching out to universities (via articles like this) for many years to motivate one, or more, to create on-campus tutor/mentor connection type teams to duplicate my work, and carry it forward into the coming decade.

If you're reading this, thank you.  Please investigate the programs I've highlighted, or the programs in my library, and send a contribution next Monday, or during the year-end giving period. Continue giving through next year.

Then, look at your network (or your bank account) and try to find one or a few people who would provide funds to establish Tutor/Mentor Connection programs on a college campus.  I want to share my archives, and my history (what worked, what did not work, what we never were able to try, etc) while I'm still alive and able to do that.

Which leads me to this. I'll be 77 on December 19th. Since 2011 I've invited people to make contributions to support Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, as birthday gifts to me.  You can use the PayPal at this page to do that. 

Or you can contribute to my on-going Fund T/MI campaign, using the PayPal on this page. 

Giving Tuesday will be Nov 28, 2023

Last year I posted this GivingTuesday article, and included the map shown below, from the GivingTuesday website. 

Giving Tuesday will be November 28, 2023 this year.  I still have not found a Chicago organization aggregating links to all the different groups raising money using the #GivingTuesday theme.  

Do you know of such a website? Share it in the comments, and I'll point to it.

Giving - December and Beyond

Below is a Tweet showing how I've attempted to draw donors to Chicago area volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor programs in support of yesterday's Giving Tuesday campaign.

#GivingTuesday is November 29th this year. Seek out youth #tutor #mentor and learning programs and "invest heavily" in them. That was recommendation in Sunday's @Suntimes commentary.

Read my article at https://t.co/X9oKRsNdRl pic.twitter.com/qnxmAk2iH5

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) November 14, 2022

I hope they were all successful, but want to emphasize, that they need on-going support throughout the year, not just in November and December.  That's why the lists I maintain are so important. They help people find programs that may not have as much marketing power, but are still needed in different parts of the Chicago region. 

While I led Tutor/Mentor Connection as a non-profit from 1993 to mid 2011 I've led it via the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since late 2011, which does not have a 501-c-3 status.

Yet, I'm still poorly funded and depend on contributions to help me keep writing this blog, hosting my library, sharing via email and social media, etc. 

Thus, I've created two December campaigns to help fund my efforts.

This first is my December 19th birthday campaign.  For those who don't want to donated to a non-charity organization, make a gift to honor my birthday.  Each $7.60 lights one candle on my birthday cake.

Click here to make that gift. 

The second way to give is through the "Fund T/MI" campaign.  Millions of non-charity people have set up "fund me" campaigns.  This is mine.  Click here and use the PayPal to send a contribution. 

On my "Fund T/MI" page I've posted a log, showing some of my efforts during 2022 to help tutor/mentor programs grow in Chicago and other cities. I've done this for the past five years. 

At age 76 I'm not trying to create a new Tutor/Mentor Connection. Instead I'm trying to motivate people to duplicate my efforts and help build a similar structure in every major city of the USA and the world.  Read some of these "a new T/MC" articles to see what I'm asking. 

As I do this I need your continued help to spread the word, keep my efforts funded, and keep drawing attention and support to my library and lists of youth serving programs. 

Thank you to everyone who has contributed in past years.  Please repeat again in 2022 and in 2023.  

Follow media stories with actions

Yesterday's Chicago SunTimes had a feature commentary with the headine "We should not accept any more children being gunned down"

I highlighted one of the recommendations which was "Invest heavily in both data driven programs and in mentoring programs that have proven outcomes." 

Below is another issue of the Chicago Sun-Times. This was October 15, 1992, following the murder of a 7-year-old boy in Cabrini-Green. 

The headline was "7-Year-Old's Death at Cabrini Requires Action".  That was 30 years ago!  There have been other stories and other "call-to-action" headlines and editorials in both major Chicago newspapers in the years between, but none have a) consistently (or frequently) pointed to a list of existing Chicago area youth tutor and/or mentor programs; and b) called on people to support those programs with time, talent and dollars.

Nor have they led an on-going analysis asking "where are these programs most needed?; where are existing programs located?; are we reaching kids in every age group from 1st grade through high school?; and where are more programs needed?." 

They might even have gone so far as to ask "What businesses are supporting programs throughout the city with dollars, talent and employee volunteer involvement?" 

Every year since 2012 there has been a Giving Tuesday campaign, intended to raise money for charities throughout the USA and the world.  The map below is on the global Giving Tuesday website.  

This year Giving Tuesday will be November 29th.  Visit the US Giving Tuesday site and scroll down to see this map (image shown above). Each red dot is a participating organization seeking donations. 

Unfortunately there are few Chicago area organizations on this map.  I did a Google search for "Giving Tuesday 2022" and found many organizations seeking donations for themselves, but no organization (that I know of) is aggregating links to all tutor/mentor programs in the region, or all anything. 

However, if you want to "invest heavily" in youth mentoring, here are some resources: 

You can use my Twitter list to see posts by Chicago tutor and/or mentor organizations, such as this one by Christopher House.

Giving Tuesday is almost here, and YOU can help us raise $5,000 to help support dreams and ensure smiles for over 4,000 families. Post a selfie showcasing your own unique smile (and tag us!) with the hashtag #SmilesForScholars and make a gift today! https://t.co/Xw8Oo7MsRB pic.twitter.com/V37tmdN5oO

— Christopher House (@chousechicago) November 14, 2022

Many organizations will be running Giving Tuesday campaigns and those with large support groups or able to build extra media attention, should be able to attract donors.  However, many won't.  That's why I've been building a comprehensive list since 1993 and have been using maps to show a) where they are needed; and b) where existing programs are located.  

The goal is that every neighborhood has a full range of youth serving programs helping all kids from birth-to-work. Or, to "hope" and "opportunity".

In addition to my Twitter list you can also visit the www.tutormentorexchange.net website and see my lists of Chicago area programs and find my Instagram and Facebook lists of programs.  

If you begin "shopping" now, by looking at my lists and posts made by various programs on social media you can a) decide what program(s) you want to support on Giving Tuesday; and b) provide information to friends, family and others in your network, so they can also add their support.

The SunTimes, Tribune and all other Chicago area media could write an article like this one, providing the same encouragement to give, and give generously, or as the commentary in Sunday's SunTimes said "invest heavily". 

They could be pointing to program lists following every negative news story. Every week.

A donor like Mackenzie Scott could even provide money for a new platform to be created to aggregate links to tutor/mentor programs and plot them on maps, as I was doing from 2004 to 2018, but also adding a "donate" feature, so people using the site could also make contributions, not just one Tuesday of the year, but "every Tuesday". 

Had the media been following their negative news with "Giving Tuesday" type of capacity building over the past 30 years maybe Chicago would not now be facing so much anger and violence.  Too late to look back, but not too early to look forward.

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on social media platforms (see list). 

Also, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC is not a non-profit, but does depend on contribution to fund its work. Click here if you'd like to help.