NEW YORK (AP) — Donations on Giving Tuesday, an 8-year-old campaign to get people to give money to charities, rose 25% from last year, organizers said.

Nearly $2.5 billion was donated in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to estimates by GivingTuesday, the nonprofit behind the campaign. That’s up from last year’s total of about $2 billion.

Giving Tuesday was launched in 2012 as a way to get people to donate on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, when people are already opening their wallets for the kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

The 92nd Street Y, a community center in New York, is credited with coming up with the idea. A separate organization, called GivingTuesday, was later created to organize and promote it.

Charities and businesses use the hashtag #GivingTuesday on social media to spread awareness and seek donations.

No Kid Hungry, for example, said it raised $2.3 million on Giving Tuesday, up 341% from last year’s haul of $521,000. The organization, which advocates to end child hunger, attributed the increase in generosity to the pandemic, which has created more awareness that children are missing meals because of closed schools and high unemployment.

In May, GivingTuesday held another an online campaign to get people to donate to charities amid the pandemic, bringing in about more than $500 million in online donations.