Despite all the recent negative press and doomsaying, there are still good things happening in the world. Giving Tuesday just happens to be one of those things.

Kicking off the holiday season with a day of inspired charitable giving, Giving Tuesday falls on the last Tuesday in November, right after Thanksgiving and well enough before Christmas. It’s a time when people naturally more charitable than usual, a time when people are more than willing to share their resources.

The Huntsville-Madison County community is especially generous when it comes to supporting nonprofits. Through its promotion of Giving Tuesday, The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville hopes to generate more awareness about the companies and organizations that are making the local community even better through acts of generosity.

Despite nearly two years of a pandemic, seemingly endless months that have been fraught with both individual and collective financial setbacks, The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville celebrated local philanthropy in a big way at this years’ community-wide Giving Tuesday event. There was a lot to celebrate, with 14 funding organizations and 54 nonprofit recipients.

At the event, several north Alabama corporations stepped up to provide financial support to the many local nonprofit organizations. The companies that are within the Community Foundation’s Corporate Giving Network presented grants which totaled over $1 million dollars.

Giving Tuesday is an internationally recognized charitable day of giving celebrated after Thanksgiving that helps kick off the holiday season. Participants in Giving Tuesday illustrate how charitable giving is the focal point of the season and, locally, how this central principle is crucial in developing healthy relationships within a happier Huntsville community.

Held yesterday at the Twickenham Center at Redstone Federal Credit Union, the event brought together companies such as ADTRAN, AI Signal Research Inc., Boeing, CADENCE Bank, Cintel Inc., and many others to celebrate local philanthropy.

Other businesses that provided grants included CFD Research, ERC, Google Fiber, Intrepid, IronMountain Solutions, Martin Federal Consulting, Toyota, and Vector Wealth Strategies.

According to the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, the importance of community involvement this time of year is because “we believe that together we can accomplish more than any one individual, company, or organization can accomplish.”

On a beautiful Tuesday morning, there was nothing but blue skies as the check presentation was celebrated with a group photo at The Community Foundation Park.

It’s hard to imagine that just ten years ago, there wasn’t such an event as Giving Tuesday. In fact, the first Giving Tuesday came about in 2012 as a result of collaborative effort between New York’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation.

The following year, Mashable and Google+ partnered up to host a ‘hangout-a-thon.’ In Giving Tuesday’s short history, between 2012-2013, the charitable giving dollar amount nearly doubled. In 2013, Over 7,000 participating nonprofits received much-needed funds to support their missions.

$125 million was raised via Facebook for Giving Tuesday 2018. In a collaborative effort, Facebook and PayPal announced they would match up to $7 million in donations to United States nonprofits, first come, first served. The match limit was reached in less than hour.

Giving Tuesday has a short, yet powerful history. It was founded on the premise that a community can accomplish more than any one individual, company, or organization can achieve alone. Giving Tuesday also serves to inspire people and companies alike to celebrate the many nonprofit organizations through the act of giving.

Mark your calendar for the next Giving Tuesday on November 29th, 2022. Take this opportunity to participate in a day filled with radical acts of generosity.