Over the summer the emails started rolling in “Is your nonprofit ready for GivingTuesday this year?”
No. Definitely not.
To be honest, for a team that prides itself on authenticity, doing things differently, respecting the email inboxes of our supporters, and being deeply rooted in the needs of our patients, this annual day of global giving always rolls around with a bit of discomfort.
Our team racks our brains for a new way to celebrate or a creative way to non-celebrate-but-still-celebrate. 🤔 At its root, however, a day dedicated to bringing people together from all around the world for each to do our small part of creating more good is actually deeply aligned with what Watsi tries to do every day, all year long. It is through each of these small acts that our collective impact ends up reshaping lives, communities, and even the world. This reminds us of the words of Desmond Tutu:
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
And just like every GivingTuesday, we did end the day feeling overwhelmed. Exhausted, yes. But even more so truly blown away by all the deeply generous ways we showed up for each other.
We know this year has been challenging. Despite high needs, research by GivingTuesday found that donations to nonprofits for under $100 were down 17% and donations of $101-$500 were down 8% for the first half of the year. For a crowdfunding organization like Watsi, this has an impact on how we’re able to deliver on our mission. Inflation, war and conflict, economic uncertainty, burnout, and job loss have all impacted people so significantly this year.
Yet, yesterday we felt a groundswell of radical generosity build throughout the day.
Our community showed up to raise awareness and spread the word.
Our volunteers Sydney, Shantanu, and Sarah hopped on our platform to help edit and share our patient’s stories on watsi.org.
Our medical partners in communities around the world provided compassionate, high-quality, and life-changing healthcare for the most vulnerable of their patients.
Donations big and small began to come in. By 7:30 am our community's generosity unlocked the gift of a new life for Lucky, a 32-year-old farmer from Uganda who welcomed a healthy baby girl with a safe C-section.
While Lucky’s new baby was the youngest patient we helped yesterday, we also showed up for 75-year-old Chhem from Cambodia when our community funded his sight-restoring eye surgery so he can enjoy more days with his 15 grandchildren.
We celebrated support from our O.G. Watsi community - those who have believed in us since Day 1 like Annie and Benjamin. And, we felt so lucky to welcome Zachary who joined in on Watsi for the very first time and Mariana who became the newest member of our Universal Fund supporting her first patient Kaung, a bright student from Thailand, by funding surgery to heal his left forearm. Thank you Mariana for spreading the word, it truly means the world to us. 💙
Our long-time supporters John and Rajas gave the first and last donations of our campaign. By the time our weary-eyed team closed our laptops well after midnight, our community had supported life-changing healthcare not only for Lucky, Chhem, and Kaung, but for a remarkable 126 families around the world. A 2000%+ increase above an average day! We expect this to grow even further as donations come in from companies who generously matched employee gifts yesterday. 🤞
Take just a moment to imagine the joy, potential, and renewed hope that all of this generosity ignited yesterday for people around the world. ✨ Together, let’s overwhelm the world even more - we'll be here, every Tuesday in fact, building a world with good health for all.
The Watsi Team
Everyone deserves healthcare.