This Dec. 1, California State University, Northridge will be teaming up with internal and external organizations to participate in the nationwide Giving Tuesday event, where donations will be collected to help the less fortunate in the San Fernando Valley region. This will be the second year CSUN organizes this on-campus event. Last year the groups collected two barrels of canned goods, eight barrels of clothing and five boxes of unopened toys.

CSUN will be partnering with the on-campus organization Unified We Serve, a program from the Matador Involvement Center whose goal is to unify students, faculty, staff and community members to provide the greatest amount of resources to serve the community; community group MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity), whose mission is to break the bonds of poverty by providing basic human needs and a pathway to self-reliance; and The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, the local organization aiming to end homelessness in the San Fernando Valley. Unified We Serve will collect canned food goods, The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission will collect gently worn clothing and MEND will collect unopened toys, especially those for children ages 10-14.

Those not on campus during the event can also donate to the university’s scholarship fund on the website giving.csun.edu. There, donations of any denomination can be given to specific recipients, whether it be CSUN Athletics, their majors, student scholarships and other on-campus endeavors.

“Last year, Giving Tuesday showed us how the CSUN community could rally around this event and make a difference during the holidays for our neighbors in underserved communities,” said Jorge Martin, director of communications for CSUN. “It’s heartwarming to know that what we collect on Dec. 1 could help local families not just during the holidays, but in the year ahead. This shows the giving spirit that pervades at CSUN and with our partners.”

The donation collection will take place from noon to 5 p.m. on the CSUN campus. CSUN Athletics has donated the space — The Matadome’s Redwood Hall West Patio — where the groups will collect the much-needed items from the donating public. The CSUN Baseball team will have volunteers man the booths to help collect donated items.

“Supporting local organizations like MEND this Giving Tuesday is really crucial as donations generated are used in providing much-needed services to the community,” said Nene Ogbechie, MEND’s Communications Volunteer Team Manager. “The support also ensures that over 30,000 low-income clients can become self reliant through the services MEND offers, such as food, clothing, healthcare, adult education, job training and more.”

The Giving Tuesday movement began in 2012 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. Those organizations used social media to heavily promote their cause, making #GivingTuesday recognizable on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. CSUN is promoting the day using a heavy social media presence centered around the hashtag #CSUNGives. Across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the university will make sure the hashtag gets a lot of exposure in the community’s timelines. This year, the event will be promoted via the university’s social media pages.

For more information about Giving Tuesday on the CSUN campus, visit www.csun.edu/givingtuesday.

Giving Tuesday, MEND, San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, Unified