NEW YORK, June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GivingTuesday today announced the members of its inaugural Community Campaign Accelerator cohort, selecting 18 leaders representing 36 community foundations and their affiliates across Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The cohort will participate in the three-year capacity building program designed to strengthen civic engagement and collective giving across the South. The full list of cohort members is available on GivingTuesday’s website.
Against a backdrop of declining civic engagement and record levels of isolation and loneliness nationwide, the Community Campaign Accelerator intends to address the critical needs of communities. Despite these trends, research from GivingTuesday Data Commons GivingPulse survey, a weekly survey of Americans that tracks generous actions and beliefs, reveals that a majority of Americans across political divides and backgrounds share a strong and persistent desire to help one another and strengthen their communities through generosity and collaboration.
"People in communities across the US want to do good, and these exceptional organizations we're welcoming to the Community Campaign Accelerator are poised to transform that desire into action," said Asha Curran, chief executive officer of GivingTuesday. "When we harness collective generosity, we inspire civic engagement and welcome everyone into community building. That increases trust and connection and ultimately builds civic space."
GivingTuesday’s Community Campaign Accelerator builds on the organization’s proven success over the past 13 years. GivingTuesday Community Campaigns currently cover roughly ⅓ of US, and communities with these campaigns see:
- a 90% increase in local giving compared to communities without campaigns
- 85% growth in donor engagement
- donors who give 20% more and stay engaged longer.
“Our goal is a Community Campaign in every county in the US, and the Accelerator program will bring us closer to that vision,” said Curran. “These campaigns do so much more than mobilize funds, they bring everyone in a community together to celebrate shared values and inspire people to work collectively. They also build a stronger nonprofit sector, increase trust in community organizations, and create more resilient communities overall.”
The three-year program, made possible through funding from the Fidelity Charitable® Catalyst Fund, will equip 36 community foundations and their affiliates with tools, training, and support needed to run effective and impactful GivingTuesday Community Campaigns and other year round collective giving efforts. GivingTuesday is currently in discussions to expand the program through various partnerships to additional regions including Kansas, Central Appalachia, Southern California, Indiana, and Texas.
The initiative represents a powerful response to division and polarization across the US. By supporting ground-up community engagement, the program demonstrates that local efforts can create meaningful countercurrents to national division when properly supported and connected.
For more information, visit www.givingtuesday.org/accelerator or contact media@givingtuesday.org.
About GivingTuesday
GivingTuesday is a movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world. It was created in 2012 at New York’s 92nd Street Y and incubated in its Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact. What started as a simple idea of a day that encourages people to do good has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity year-round. The movement is brought to life through a distributed network of entrepreneurial leaders who lead national movements in more than 100 countries across the globe. An integral part of the global generosity movement is the GivingTuesday organization, which offers support and resources to GivingTuesday leaders and fosters connection and collaboration across the network.
To learn more about GivingTuesday, please visit: www.givingtuesday.org.
About the Fidelity Charitable® Catalyst Fund
The Fidelity Charitable Catalyst Fund is a grantmaking program of Fidelity Charitable separate from its donor-advised fund program. Led by the Fidelity Charitable Board of Trustees, the Catalyst Fund envisions a world where promising nonprofits that strengthen our communities have access to the resources they need to flourish. For more information, visit: www.fidelitycharitable.org/catalyst-fund.
