by Joe Siegel

This year’s Giving Tuesday event was a success, according to organizers and LGBTQ media outlets who participated.

Giving Tuesday — typically the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — was held last year on December 3. At givingtuesday.org, the group noted, “The GivingTuesday Data Commons estimates that 38.1 million people participated in GivingTuesday 2025 and $4.0 billion was donated in the U.S. alone, bringing the cumulative total of GivingTuesday donations since its launch in 2012 to $22.5 billion. This wave of generosity across the globe highlights a growing and enduring commitment to community care and to the causes people care about most.”

Many LGBTQ publications joined the event and held their own fundraisers.

“We netted just under $500, mostly small donations,” said Michael Yamashita, publisher of San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter. “Next year we’ll try sending our appeal earlier on the day. It’s still worth it for keeping the message in front of readers. Some were first-time donors or became monthly donors.”

“We are still raising money through our Giving Tuesday campaign, so we don’t have a final total yet,” said Franco Stevens, founding publisher of Curve Magazine. “We set a modest goal of $2,500 and have already surpassed it. This year, we folded Giving Tuesday into our broader yearend fundraising strategy.”

“Giving Tuesday was great for us,” said Ken Schneck, editor of the Buckeye Flame. “We started the day at 75 percent of our yearend NewsMatch campaign and ended the day at 94 percent. That’s an amazing haul for one day and most definitely worth the trouble. That amounts to close to $3,000 of NewsMatch’s $15K cap. So the $3K will be doubled and there were bonuses that we unlocked that add more to the total and most of it was recurring, so it can be built into our budget.”

Our Lives in Madison, Wisc., however, did not participate, according to editor Patrick Farabaugh. “The infrastructure isn’t there yet for our nonprofit. We will next year though.”

GLAAD (formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) said it did well on Giving Tuesday. “GLAAD is grateful to all who donated to our mission to accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ people through accurate and inclusive representation. We are also thankful to the notable names and podcasts for recommending GLAAD on Giving Tuesday.”

Notably, singer Frankie Grande donated $10,000 “to match and supercharge donations during a ‘Power Hour’ within Giving Tuesday,” said GLAAD.

“Since its inception in 2012, GivingTuesday has grown from a single day of giving to a year-round global movement,” the organization stated. “In 2025, GivingTuesday continued to prove that generosity knows no borders, with grassroots movements in more than 110 countries and thousands of local communities inspiring people to give, collaborate, and make a difference.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 27
Issue 11