Five days after Black Friday, the shopping riot videos posted on YouTube have garnered hundreds of thousands of views showing people flooding into stores and over each other for the cheapest holiday products.
Post holiday shopping madness, organizations all over the country teamed up Tuesday to encourage a new, possibly less-stressful way for Americans to spend their money this holiday season called Giving Tuesday.
The project, which aims to persuade people to donate to charities on the Tuesday following Cyber Monday, was spearheaded by 92nd Street Y in New York City, a 140-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to promoting education, art, health, wellness and Jewish life.
Beverly Greenfield, director of public and media relations for 92nd Street Y, said when the idea for the project came about, members of the community center expected about 100 participants, but more than 2,000 charitable and non-profit organizations participated.
The project gained momentum with partners including Mashable, the United Nations Foundation and Microsoft.
"We started to think about how communities are changing and how to bring together a community of digitally connected people," she said. "Giving Tuesday can be a day that's good for the soul."
Greenfield said the social media response to Giving Tuesday was "astounding" and that at one point #GivingTuesday trended not only nationally, but worldwide.
Greenfield said she hopes for Giving Tuesday to become as much an anticipated day on the calendar as Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Thirty-one organizations in Tennessee were listed on givingtuesday.org as partners. They included Community Foundation of Greater Memphis and Girl Scouts Hearts of the South.
Patti Smith, vice president of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, said the company used the day to encourage people to be charitable year round.
"People tend to think this is the busiest shopping time of the year, which it is, but it's also the biggest time for giving," she said.
Kristen Posey-Russell, communications manager for Girl Scouts Heart of the South, said the Scouts used Giving Tuesday as a way to encourage alumni to make monetary donations to the organization in honor of their 100-year anniversary.
Posey-Russell said the group's website had an eight percent increase in traffic Tuesday, though monotary donations didn't increase much.
"I think [Giving Tuesday] is a great idea," she said. "It gives people a reminder to be thankful for what they have. I hope it becomes as mainstream and catches on like Black Friday and Cyber Monday."
Ashley Mahone, senior musical theatre major, said Giving Tuesday is a smart idea.
"I usually try to volunteer on Thanksgiving or Christmas day," she said. "If you had a specific day dedicated to it I think more would get done and more people would get more out of it."
