Today Is Giving Tuesday (Video)

After Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday today is Giving Tuesday.  Every year, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, people take the time to kick off the holiday season by giving back to their community.

Whether it be donating money to a charitable cause or volunteering, Giving Tuesday is a day set to benefit the community, and apparently those fundraisers people do on Facebook really do work.  A new survey found requests from friends and family are the #1 thing that gets us to donate to a cause.

95% of us have donated time or money to a charity at some point in our lives.

Vitamin Angels.SWNS/YouTube

88% of parents actively encourage their kids to be generous and donate.

Being on the receiving end of a good deed makes you 20% more likely to DO a good deed and pay it forward.

23% of us donate less than $100 to charity each year.  28% donate between $100 and $500 ,10% donate between $500 and $1,000,and 13% give more than that.  Also, 83% of people wish they could give more than they currently do.

In any given year, about 30% of annual giving happens in the month of December.  And 70% of us feel guilty if we don't donate at least something during the holidays.

Charities that help kids are our favorite groups to donate to.  Followed by groups that help women, the environment, and animals.

Once we find a cause we like, we tend to stick with it.  90% of people who donated for Giving Tuesday last year plan to give to the same cause again this year.

34% of people admit peer pressure plays a role in giving, and they're more likely to donate to a cause if they're asked in front of other people.

Just over 10% of us have lied about donating when we didn't.  And 31% of those people admit they did it to impress someone.

93% of people think of themselves as "generous."  And 54% think they're more generous than their friends are.