Since launching in April 2023, GivingTuesday Japan has been on a mission to highlight the country’s quiet but powerful culture of generosity. Led by Jasmine Tsunoda—a longtime nonprofit supporter and web designer who discovered GivingTuesday through a client—the small but ambitious team has worked to raise awareness, build trust, and spotlight what they call Japan’s “silent givers.” Early partnerships with Tokyo-based nonprofits laid the groundwork, and creative influencer collaborations with byFood and Riki with Japan Mates helped them reach new audiences, especially younger generations. Through storytelling, blog interviews, and calls to action, GivingTuesday Japan is inviting more people across the country to recognize and celebrate the many forms generosity takes.
We spoke with Jasmine to hear how the team brought these partnerships to life—and what other leaders can take away from their early success in building a movement rooted in local culture and creativity.
Q&A with Jasmine Tsunoda, Global Community Team Leader at GivingTuesday Japan
Q: Share a little bit about yourself and your background with GivingTuesday Japan.
A: My name is Jasmine Tsunoda. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and lived in Tampa, Florida, for four years after graduating from the University of Cincinnati and the University of South Florida. I eventually made Japan my forever home in 2014—it’s hard to believe that was almost 11 years ago! I always tell people I was born in America but I grew up in Japan, since most of my adult life has been spent here.
I became a GivingTuesday leader in March of 2023, and GivingTuesday Japan officially launched the following month, in April 2023. Right now, we are a small team of three and in the process of growing so we can officially register as an organization here in Japan. Our goal is to have a core team of ten, with various volunteers scattered across the various prefectures.
Q: When did you first hear about GivingTuesday, and what made you want to become a GivingTuesday country leader?
A: While living here in Japan after marrying my husband and having our son, I learned web design and coding, which became my full time job. Through this, one of my clients, who runs a non-profit organization in Cincinnati, told me about GivingTuesday and mentioned they were looking for help with a campaign they wanted to feature on their website.
I didn’t know what GivingTuesday was at the time, so I looked into it and noticed that Japan didn’t have an official team, so to speak. That was when I reached out to Kait, the Director of Global at GivingTuesday. I have always been involved in volunteer work and non-profits since I was young. My mom does a lot of charity work, her biggest project being the annual St. Jude walk. Despite always being busy with work or taking care of the house, she made time to help others in need, even if it was people she didn’t know.
So I thought, why couldn’t I do the same thing? Japan is known for its humble, hospitable, and kind nature, but what people see on the outside only scratches the surface. So much “good” is going on here that not a lot of people know about or talk about, and through GivingTuesday Japan, I think we have a real opportunity to be the voice of the “silent givers” here.
Q: Tell us more about your recent influencer collaborations with byFood and Riki with Japan Mates.
A: We were brainstorming various ways to spread awareness about GivingTuesday Japan’s launch and our mission, as it is well known here in Japan that networking is all about who you know. In the beginning, it was difficult to get organizations to agree to partner with us because we were so new, and many people didn’t understand the “concept” or meaning behind GivingTuesday or what it does. This, combined with the fact that we had no established backing or legitimacy, made it even harder.
Thankfully, after a few trial-and-errors with advertising tests and getting our first few partners with major non-profit organizations in Tokyo, we caught the attention of the United States Japan Foundation, who was introduced to us by Kait. Thanks to their sponsorship and support, we came up with the idea of using influencers as another way to spread awareness on a larger scale—especially to the younger generations—now that we were a bit more established. Actually, one of our current partners introduced us to byFood, whereas with Riki, we reached out to him via email.
I knew that partnering with byFood was the right choice—not only because they collaborate with our partners but also because the message behind their Food For Happiness campaign aligns with GivingTuesday as a whole. The whole process started with us agreeing to do an interview with Serkan Toso, COO and co-founder of byFood, and in exchange, we would do a collaboration segment on an experience of his choosing. The collaboration involved us participating in an experience offered on the byFood website and then posting about it on our social channels. So, while there was no direct payment, our “exchange” was the deliverable from the collaboration. Which you can check out on our YouTube channel.
On the flip side, April, our Community Lead Assistant, found out about Riki through his YouTube and Instagram channels. He has been gaining a lot of traction with his street interviews because he isn’t afraid to ask the questions that people really want to know the answers to. Some are controversial and some are silly, but he comes across as genuine and really wants to share the true spirit of Japanese culture with those interested in learning. April corresponded with Riki via email, and we agreed on the deliverables and sponsorship amount, which included a paid sponsorship in exchange for us also posting an interview about him on our blog.
Q: What has most surprised you about the reception of the campaign?
A: For both campaigns, I think I was most surprised to see how interested people were in Serkan’s and Riki’s interviews and their #MyGivingStory features. It’s not every day that you have this kind of access to a COO of an international company and a rising influencer. In fact, all of our #MyGivingStory posts so far have been our most viewed content.
But more than that, I think it is their honesty and genuine desire to help people in need that I think attracts views and comments to both campaigns. People are simply just curious—they want to know more about who they are, what they do, what they plan to do next, and how they can get involved.
Q: How did you encourage people to participate, both in the content and in the amplification of it when it was posted?
A: Call to Actions. We try to include a call to action in everything we post— whether it be a blog post, social media update, or a full-length video. We ask people to share their thoughts, let us know if they’ve heard of or participated in anything similar, ask questions, or share their own stories and tag us.
We also put polls in our blog posts so people can vote without feeling pressured to comment as not many people want to do such things outside of pressing the like button to show support. It’s a simple, quick way to engage—just the push of a button. I’m learning that engagement, no matter how small, still matters. And it helps bring people back to our website, which is ultimately the goal.
Q: What worked well, and what would you do differently next time?
A: Honestly, I think both collaborations yielded better results than we expected. We saw a surge in website traffic and gained a handful of social media followers following the posting of both campaigns. I don’t know if there is anything specific I would do differently, except maybe coming up with a better posting schedule? The two campaigns were posted fairly close together (though with Riki, we were working around his schedule), so maybe next time, I’d consider spacing them out more.
Q: Any unexpected challenges? How did you overcome them?
A: Aside from some technical issues during the byFood experience, nothing unexpected came up thankfully. We were able to work around those technical issues thanks to some clever editing on my part—HA!
TIP: If you are recording video content on a phone, make sure it is always filmed horizontally. It looks better on YouTube that way.
Q: How have you continued the momentum after the initial collaborations were posted? What’s next?
A: We are already working on our next project with Riki! He also runs a business aimed at helping people find jobs, particularly foreign residents who often don’t realize what opportunities are available to them. We now have a job posting board on our website as well, so when one of our partners or sponsors has a job opening, they can post it for free on our site for more exposure. A LOT of people are interested in working in the non-profit or social impact sector, so we make sure each listing is posted in both English and Japanese. We even handle the translation for our partners at no cost.
We have already had a lot of success and hope to build upon and improve on our job board and on our collaboration with our partners and Riki. Our events calendar and careers page are our next big project with him, along with plans to do another round of funding to do a couple more street interviews in different areas or Japan. We’re excited to see how the responses vary depending on the region he is in!
As for byFood, we are in talks about doing our next experience collaboration campaign. We hope to partner with another restaurant, business, or individual listed on byFood who’s doing work that aligns with our mission. Kind of like another byFood and #MyGivingStory two-for-one!
There’s a lot to look forward to from the Japan team, and we’re hopeful that even more influencers will want to collaborate with us in the coming months or next year. So stay tuned!
Want to learn more about GivingTuesday Japan’s collaborations?
Check out their featured blogs and Instagram post:
