GivingTuesday CEO: Everybody Is Generous
Asha Curran is the CEO of GivingTuesday.
“Generosity is a basic, positive human value. In today’s climate, it is a tremendously undervalued tool for depolarization,” says Asha Curran, CEO of GivingTuesday, a unique model of funding and community-based philanthropy in 85 countries, raising an estimated total of $10 billion over the last 10 years.
““Generosity is a basic, positive human value. In today’s climate, it is a tremendously undervalued tool for depolarization,” says @RadioFreeAsha, CEO of #GivingTuesday, a unique model of funding and community-based #philanthropy in 85 countries.”
“It is really powerful to feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves,” says Curran, formerly Chief Innovation Officer and director of the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92nd Street Y, where she co-founded GivingTuesday in 2012, before launching it as a separate independent entity in 2019.
With more than 240 giving communities in the U.S. alone, GivingTuesday raised more than $2.7 billion in the U.S. on the one Tuesday after Thanksgiving in 2021.
“With more than 240 giving #communities in the U.S. alone, #GivingTuesday raised more than $2.7 billion in the U.S. on the one Tuesday after Thanksgiving in 2021. ”
And while Curran says early in her life she had “no urge to be in philanthropy whatsoever,” all roads led to the creation of GivingTuesday, named one of the 10 Most Innovative Nonprofits by Fast Company.
“I had a very circuitous and non-linear career path,” Curran says. “GivingTuesday was my entry point into philanthropy. I literally did not know what the rules were,” says Curran, recipient of the 2015 Social Capital Hero Award, and a 2016 Woman of Influence by New York Business Journals and a 40 Over 40 Women to Watch honoree.
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Born in Kashmir, India to American parents living and working there, she moved back to New York City with her mother when she was three years old. Raised by a single mom working in New York public schools, Curran says they had little money, but “the idea of responsibility to each other was a theme. We spoke often about being all in this together.”
“Raised by a single mom working in New York public schools, CEO of @GivingTuesday, @RadioFreeAshasays they had little money, but “the idea of responsibility to each other was a theme. We spoke often about being all in this together.” #Generosity #SocialJustice”
Graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1995 after studying politics and women’s studies, Curran says studying there helped her “find a sense of myself and my own agency and power.”
In 2005, Curran started working at 92nd St Y doing cultural programming for a global audience. It was in 2012 at the Belfer Center where she co-created GivingTuesday.
“It’s more global than we ever in a million years imagined. It was meant to be a hashtag to democratize the conversation about giving,” says Curran, who serves as Chair of the board of directors of Guardian.org, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing civil discourse and issues-driven journalism at The Guardian and elsewhere.
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“Back when GivingTuesday started, half of the people didn’t even know what a hashtag was, and asked, ‘Why are you doing this with the pound sign?’” Curran remembers.
““Back when #GivingTuesday started, half of the people didn’t even know what a hashtag was, and asked, ‘Why are you doing this with the pound sign?’” @RadioFreeAsha remembers. #philanthropy”
“Over the next five to six years, we grew to such a remarkable extent, and had to face what is the future of this movement. It is its own ecosystem and now an independent entity,” says Curran, who serves on the board of directors of the Scout Film Festival, and is a a Fellow at Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab within the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society.
While she says that the bulk of donations on #GivingTuesday are “everyday people giving $25, $50, $100,” for so many around the globe the giving has become a habit. “It has gone from being a holiday gift to being a habit and a longterm behavior change,” says Curran, who was named to the Nonprofit Times’ Top Fifty Power and Influence list in 2019.
““#GivingTuesday has gone from being a holiday gift to being a habit and a longterm behavior change,” says @RadioFreeAsha, who was named to the @NonProfitTimes’ Top Fifty Power and Influence list in 2019. #femaleleader”
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COVID has also changed the culture of giving, she says. “Giving skyrocketed during COVID,” she says. “That was heartwarming to see. All of us were home, scared and anxious. Generosity is an antidote to fear and anxiety.”
“#COVID has also changed the culture of giving, @RadioFreeAsha says. “Giving skyrocketed during COVID. That was heartwarming to see. All of us were home, scared and anxious. #Generosity is an antidote to fear and anxiety.””
The nature of how generosity is perceived is also shifting, Curran says. “Some people talk about generosity as being a martyr, you are sacrificing. But you would never talk about love that way. Generosity is a Trojan horse for human engagement.”
As a leader of this enormous global movement, Curran says she has many lessons she has learned and wants to share.
“There is a real leadership element to GivingTuesday” and the outcomes of being involved with funding communities and causes, says Curran. “Whether it is in their careers or joining to do one thing at a time, we describe ourselves as leaderfull.”
She adds, “My job is to make sure other leaders come out of this moment. I think of myself both as a leader and a follower. My job is to articulate the vision and identify what is the one thing that unifies us all.”
Curran recently initiated The #GivingTuesday Data Collaborative that evolved after the #GivingTuesday leadership team began to form partnerships with giving platforms and payment processors to try to understand how much money was being donated on the day itself. It became apparent that with the amount and diversity of data available, they could learn much more about giving—the drivers behind it, the behaviors around it, and what might inspire more of it.
“@RadioFreeAsha recently initiated The #GivingTuesday Data Collaborative that evolved after the @GivingTuesday leadership team began to form partnerships with giving platforms and payment processors to try to understand how much money was being donated on the day itself.”
Based in New York, and post-COVID “traveling all the time” to different GivingTuesday communities around the world, Curran says there is a dichotomy to the work she does and that community members create.
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“We start from need that is limitless and so real. Half of our customers are in active crisis,” Curran says. So she asks, “Which side of the pie do you focus on?”
She agrees, “There is a level of suffering and need. I get to focus on the side of celebration and the ability to address that need and be a model for global systems change.”
This Week’s Take The Lead Takeaway:
As CEO of GivingTuesday, Asha Curran says she consistently asks herself these questions: “How am I acting toward people on a daily basis? Am I mentoring? Am I giving people the time they deserve? How can my skills or talents benefit others? Am I making connections?”
Reflecting on the organization she co-founded, Curran says GivingTuesday was an idea that generated $10.1 million on the first #GivingTuesday in 2012, and grew to a 10-year old company generating billions in one day in the U.S. alone.
“As CEO of @GivingTuesday, @RadioFreeAsha says she consistently asks herself these questions: “How am I acting toward people on a daily basis? Am I #mentoring? Am I giving people the time they deserve?” #femaleCEO #leadership”
Her best GivingTuesday leadership takeaway? “I would say that everybody is a generous person.”
