by Christine Salinas, Grants Manager

Does December 3, 2019 ring any bells? Maybe it’s your mom’s birthday?  Or the date of your wedding anniversary?

It’s certainly a date that makes the folks at Pivotal pop right up. After all, December 3, 2019, is GIVING TUESDAY, the second-largest giving day of the year (the largest is December 31)!  

And that means that you and everyone else are going to see a lot of email activity leading up to December 3. Quick fact: It was created in 2012 in response to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday by some pretty kind individuals at 92nd Street’s Y and the United Nations Foundation. 

To understand the significance of Giving Tuesday, let’s take a 2018 snapshot of philanthropy in America:

  • In 2018, Americans gave $427.1 billion in charitable gifts
  • 68% of giving was from individuals while 5% was from corporations
  • The majority of charitable dollars went towards religion and private schools and universities
  • Roughly 56% of American’s gave an average of $2,500 in 2019

Those are some pretty strong numbers. Now, how about this? There are 86,000 millionaires and billionaires living right here in Silicon Valley, where, according to the SF Gate, a family of four earning $117,400 a year qualifies as “low-income” in some counties. Living in our community is getting more challenging every day for hard-working folks who are just trying to make ends meet.  

That’s why Pivotal’s team works with a high level of urgency. Because many young people from foster care emancipate from the system without the career readiness skills they need to gain living wage employment. We know that without academic and employment interventions, foster youth will exhibit the negative trends that our society has grown so accustomed to hearing:

By age 18:

  • 25% will be unemployed
  • 25% will be homeless
  • 50% will drop out of high school.

On December 3, how about sending a strong message to foster youth in Silicon Valley? Let them know you’re giving back and that you’re on their side, no matter what.

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