NEW YORK—Founded seven years ago, Giving Tuesday has emerged as a symbol of the beginning of the holiday season. Celebrated on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday encourages celebrators not to buy, but to give back. And this year, businesses and eyecare professionals across the eyecare and eyewear fields are gearing up to do just that. This year, dozens of organizations and non-profits, including Restoring Vision, SUNY Optometry Foundation, and Prevent Blindness, are involved in encouraging donations for #GivingTuesday.



Restoring Vision has been taking part in Giving Tuesday for three years in a row. This year, they aim to turn Giving Tuesday into #GivingSightDay, with a goal of raising $30,000 to bring the gift of sight to 40,000 people around the world. Restoring Vision is accepting donations on their website, and also encouraging donators and supports to take an #unselfie: a picture of themselves holding up a piece of paper, with their reasons for donating written on it, over their faces.

SUNY Optometry is also encouraging its supporters to take an “unselfie” this year with the hashtag #EyeGive, as well as accepting donations on their website. The money raised will support vision care for women, men, and children regardless of their ability to pay, as well as community outreach programs such as care for homebound and homeless patients, scholarships for students, and funding for vision science research. SUNY Optometry’s goal, this year, is to raise $10,000.

Prevent Blindness is aiming to raise $5,000 this year, which will go toward their mission of saving sight for children, adults, and seniors across the U.S. The money will be used for education efforts and eye health programs, and they are accepting donations on their website and Facebook page.

These three groups are just a handful of those in the eyewear and eyecare industries who are accepting and encouraging donations this Giving Tuesday. In 2017, people in over 150 countries gave over $300 million on Giving Tuesday.