Black Friday? Try ‘Giving Tuesday’

>>> as americans spend the holiday shopping for friends and family, a group of charities is working to remind us all that there are millions of people in need . so with the help of corporations like sony and microsoft, they are looking to add giving tuesday to the national vocabulary, a day for charitable giving to follow black friday and cyber monday. joining me to talk about, matthew bishop , the us business editor for the economist and author of "road from ruin", how to put america back on top. let's talk about giving tuesday. how was this idea born?

>> right now, we're at the start of two seasons, the shopping season and the giving season. we saw basically shopping season has its opening day of black friday and cyber monday. but giving season doesn't have an opening day . the idea is giving tuesday, next tuesday, will be the first day of the giving season. whenever in america gets up and says i can give as i can get and i encourage my friends to stand up what they care about and they are volunteering what they are giving to.

>> social media i would imagine has changed the way charities operate, changed the way charities receive donations as well. how is social media -- what role is it going to have?

>> one of things i got excited about. i write about philanthropy a lot. this idea was started at the u.n. foundation in new york and they started to talk to huffington post and other charities that came in. it has taken off like wildfire. now on tuesday, giving tuesday, everyone is going to be encouraged to tweet, to put a photograph of themselves up saying this is my giving pledge and this is what i'm giving to on giving tuesday. we think it will go really big as people all say to each other, we're part of a big community that gives.

>> are we asking people to contribute a certain amount or asking to give to certain charities or is it just give what you want to whatever group you want?

>> opening day of baseball, you get together and celebrate the sport of baseball. this is about everyone getting together and celebrating giving. whatever matters to you is what you talk about on giving tuesday. it's not about any particular organization. it's about the social media saying this is a chance where we all go bottom up, there's no top down plan, you post your picture of yourself and do our own giving pledge and share with friends. you say i'm giving to this, what are you giving to.

>> i'm giving to three things, the community to protect journalists because they are being killed at the moment. giving to jane goodall 's foundation because i interviewed her and she's doing amazing stuff on the environment and donors choose, which gets money in the classrooms to help teachers do interesting things about their kids and give them a proper foundation.

>> the hash tash is on your screen folks. encourage folks to use it on tuesday. i'll be participating and hope you will be as well. fantastic concept. thanks for sharing