After Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes another day of the holiday shopping season – Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday originated eight years ago and is a way to bolster fundraising efforts for nonprofit organizations.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, some nonprofits in the arts have to get creative as they seek donations.

“When it comes to end-of-the-year giving, if you haven’t been engaging face to face with your patrons and donors for the past 8 1/2 months, there’s a bit of an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ quality,” says Meredith Burns, the executive director of Art House Productions in Jersey City.

Art House Productions is a nonprofit that operates a gallery and produces live performances. It has a schedule of online art and music events on Tuesday to engage potential donors. Burns says that it is crucial that arts organizations remind the public of their value in a time when the pandemic has left so many organizations and individuals in need.

“It’s allowed us to reach hundreds and hundreds of kids,” says Ari Laura Kreith, artistic director of Luna Stage in West Orange.

Luna Stage operates a nonprofit live theater. A fundraising appeal appears on its website. And while Kreith expects to put out a Giving Tuesday request, she says that she hopes that those who are already familiar with the theater’s “pay what you wish” online classes, which were started during the pandemic, will help.

“And someone else can say, ‘I want to sponsor another student’ while they’re enrolling themselves. Or simply because they’ve heard about the program and it is something they want to support,” Kreith says.

Giving Tuesday has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.