Against a background of street buskers in Elmo, Spider-Man and Statue of Liberty costumes, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) kicked off its 2025 Light the World Giving Machines program in New York City’s Times Square. The program, which has raised $48 million since its 2017 launch (including $16.4 million in 2024 alone), uses vending machine-style contraptions to fundraise for a variety of local, national and international causes.
The launch comes one day prior to the annual GivingTuesday fundraising and generosity annual event.
More than 125 cities around the world will host Giving Machines in 2025. Within the United States, the machines are appearing in more than 30 cities, including first-time participants Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Maine; and Tampa, Florida. The 19 nations that will host Giving Machines (almost double last year’s quantity) include inaugural appearances in Bangkok, Thailand; Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rome and Vienna, Italy.
The Times Square kickoff included representatives from beneficiary organizations such as the American Red Cross, Care, UNICEF USA (the longest partner within the Giving Machine program) and WaterAid, as well as clergy and congregants from the four churches in Manhattan that will, after December 1, host New York City’s four machines: Church of Our Saviour, St. Peter’s Church, The Riverside Church in the City of New York and West End Church.
The machines have moved around the city during previous holiday seasons. At one point, all four were clustered in a high-traffic area in midtown’s Rockefeller Center. One seemingly obvious area that will not host a Giving Machine is the Manhattan temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is located near Lincoln Center. The temple is undergoing extensive renovations that would prevent easy access to the machine.
“Over the years, we’ve tried to find new locations that would be visible to individuals and that would be accessible,” Brian Richard Chase, executive secretary to Elder David R. Marriott, Area Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Madison, New Jersey, told The NonProfit Times. “The purpose of the Giving Machines is to allow everyday individuals to find a way to donate and support to charitable causes during the holidays.”
Within each machine, the LDS — which covers the cost of placing and maintaining the machines, allowing all proceeds to go directly the designated organizations — tries to include a mix of local and global recipients. The Reverend Adriene Thorne, senior minister at Riverside Church, said her church is participating in the Giving Machine program for the first time. Half of the items in the machine at her church reflect her church’s partnerships with local recipients such as Make The Road New York, which empowers immigrant and working-class communities to achieve dignity and justice, and GreenFaith, which organizes on behalf of the climate and environmental movement.
“The machines inspire generosity and pique people’s interest,” Thorne told The NonProfit Times. Items within the Riverside Church machine include rent assistance, athlete and sports team support and even a six-dollar OMNY card, which would cover the cost of one round trip on New York City’s mass transit system. That low price point is something a child could afford to give and would allow a recipient to get to an appointment with dignity, “without having to hop a turnstile,” Thorne noted, in a nod to an New York City reality.
Thorne is hoping her machine will pull in between $25,000 and $50,000 in donations during its run, which will last until the program ends worldwide on December 31.
Recipient organizations were represented by several luminaries, including UNICEF USA Executive Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer Michele Walsh. UNICEF USA has several items in the machines, including 100 polio vaccines, school commuter bicycles and a favorite of Walsh’s, the $75 “Sweet Dreams” bundle, which includes therapeutic food for kids facing severe malnutrition and a warm blanket. That item, Walsh said, spoke to her on an emotional level as a mother of three.
While UNICEF USA does not have a specific amount it hopes to raise from its participation in 2025, a spokesperson said the organization had generated more than $250,000 in 2024.
Giving Machine locations are available here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/welcome/christmas/light-the-world/giving-machines?lang=eng
