UW Giving Day is an annual tradition held in conjunction with Giving Tuesday that takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving from midnight to midnight.

Giving Tuesday follows traditional shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving that kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

There are multiple opportunities to double the impact of gifts. Members of the UW Foundation Board of Directors personally established a fund of $60,000 that will be used to match any gift early in the day. This matching will launch at midnight and will be applied on a first-come basis up to a total of $1,000 per donor for online gifts only.

In 2018, UW Giving Day raised $1.1 million in gifts and pledges in a single day, which includes $308,000 in gifts, some that were doubled by matching funds. These included a $50,000 matching fund created by personal gifts from the UW Foundation Board of Directors and $804,000 in major gifts from seven generous donors.

The effort was supported by people across the UW campus, across the state and across the nation.

The Giving Tuesday tradition started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation in response to the commercialization of the holiday season. They partnered with Mashable, Skype and Cisco. Later, Microsoft, Sony and many more organizations came on board. That first year, at least $10.1 million was raised, and in 2017 an estimated $274 million was raised globally — all in one day.

In a news release, the university said that UW Giving Day is more than just the total money raised. “It is also about creating a culture of philanthropy, gratitude and giving back — not only at the University of Wyoming, but across the state,” UW said in a release.

For more information, visit www.uwyo.edu/givingday.