Disney ends ‘Give a Day’ promotion after 1 million volunteers sign up
Featured, Jason Garcia, News — By Jason Garcia on March 9, 2010 at 7:24 pm
With a little help from Mickey Mouse, Chicago residents (from left) Danielle Rub, Dwayne Gibson and Marissa Sproul begin a volunteer project Sept. 29, 2009 at the Bethune School of Excellence in Chicago. (Photo by Gene Duncan/Walt Disney World)
The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday ended a promotion offering free theme-park tickets to people who perform a day of community service, after Disney said it reached its goal of 1 million volunteers.
Disney said 1 million people had either volunteered or committed to volunteer just 10 weeks after it launched the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” campaign. The company said it subsequently closed registration for the promotion.
Volunteers who signed up have until Dec. 15 to redeem their one-day, one-park tickets, though the passes have certain blackout dates.
“By any measure, the ‘Give a Day, Get a Disney Day’ program exceeded our expectations,” Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs said in a prepared statement. “These 1 million volunteers touched their communities with their hearts and hands.”
The 2010 “Give a Day” promotion followed a 2009 campaign in which Disney offered free tickets on visitors’ birthdays. Disney distributed an estimated 1.2 million passes through that promotion.
Tags: News, Walt Disney Co.
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37 Comments
what disney is concerned about? they still are going to turn a great profit with food, parking, and gifts…they should have extended it for the whole year..
Does the free vouchers include a free fastpass?
Kuddos to Disney for this wonderful program. After reading many posts, it has become apparent that many fantastic people donated their free ticket. It’s so nice to see a company have these programs to encourage a worthwhile cause and the people who responded followed suit. You don’t see many companies in these difficult times giving to charities in the amount that Disney does. Keep up the good work.
It is about helping your community more than just getting in for free. Disney sets a great exampple, if only more companies did that. Why do people have to be bribed to help? They should just do it.
iT WAS A WIN WIN FOR ALL! WHY DI THEY STOP? THEY HAVEN’T BEEN DOING IT THAT LONG! BRING IT BACK!
When we redeemed our Volunteer vouchers at Disney, we were offered an additional three Disney days at $24 for adults and $17 for the kids – basically the four-day Florida resident special they’re currently selling for $99. The offer expires end of May – it’s definitely worth it!
Hi, That’s very interesting that you were offered an additional three disney days. How do you know the offer ends in May?
Thanks
I don’t know if the additional day offer expires in May but I know the additional days expire the end of May – it’s printed on the tickets.
Audria, are you a Florida resident? I would LOVE to get this deal, but I live out of state. You mean three days for a total of $24?
Are you a Florida resident? We live in GA but would love to be offered that amazing deal! Did you turn your voucher in at the gates?
Disney should have extended it. There was such a mad rush that many opportunities were taken because everyone was trying to rush at the beginning. Opportunites for the latter part of the year will now be less filled because folks have no more incentive.
Disney always has a promotion every year. If they don’t bring this one back, they will come up with another one before the end of the year!
What if im scheduled to give my day on March 28th, will i still be getting my ticket?
“Disney said 1 million people had either volunteered or committed to volunteer just 10 weeks after it launched the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” campaign. ”
If you’ve signed up and registered for your volunteer opportunity, you will still get your pass. Basically, Disney has reached 1 million volunteer registrations, and closed registration.
Thank goodness, I was worried about that. I just signed up the day before they announced the ending of the promotion. talk about cutting it close!
As long as you are already registered,and do your volunteer work, you will be able to get your ticket
A great program that was unexpectedly popular. I’ve seen those Volunteer Buttons all over the Parks. Remember folks, Disney committed to 1 million free tickets, and that amount is now spoken for. They will have given away 2.2 million tickets in the past 2 years, and that’s in a recession. Sure, they are making money, but not as much as before.
Kudos to Disney for this great program, and I look forward to what they might do now that GADGADD has ended unexpectedly early.
Would have been nice if their system would have worked or could have gotten support. We tried to volunteer but their system was full of bugs that we could never complete it. All the help I got was a rude customer support person which took forever to find and get through to.
Congrats to all who made it through this but I guess it wasn’t in the cards for us. I volunteer all the time anyway.
My wife and I and our 2 kids regeistered and received our passes to Disney!! We then quickly gave them away to the Boys and Girls Club to kids who really would not have a chance to go otherwise. Imagine if 999,996 people would follow suit…
It’s always about the bottom line. One million tickets is nothing to this corporate giant. God forbid they actually have to give away something….The park bores me to death anyway anymore. The only thing that is ever new at that place anymore is the prices. They change those faster than I can change my shorts.
Then don’t go to the park! Yes, as a shareholder of Disney the bottom line is important, but the company still acted as a good corporate citizen when they didn’t have to. The program got a million people to volunteer. Naturally, many may have volunteered without an incentive, but regardless it was positive for communities.
I can’t think of too many other companies that took action to encourage people to give time to charity.
In addition to 2.2 million tickets between the birthday ticket last year and the volunteer program this year, Disney also donates MILLIONS to the Make A Wish Foundation.
This whole thing was a scam by Disney. They completely exploited the charitable community. None of the charities were prepared for the onslaught of volunteers. Many of these volunteers were only interested in the minimum to get the passes.
The registration process was poorly executed and implemented. The deli counter at Publix is more organized than this mess that Disney set up.
It’s just a giant tax deduction for a company that was truly a repurpose of marketing dollars. Instead of running ads, they had newspapers, television and radio talk about how nice Disney was for free.
It’s not because Disney reached its goal of 1 million registration. It’s because Disney felt they’re going to go broke if they don’t stop.
I am more than disappointed with this program. We called our service org
in January, volunteered in February and still waiting on an e-mail. Called
several times, spoke to different people and said our names were recorded and now they say the program ended and EVERYTHING was deleted from the system since it’s over. Now there is NO record of my 6 family members,
my children are upset. We’ve been explaining to them about volunteering and how important it is and how they will be rewarded once its complete. And our vacation is scheduled for a week away. Oh, when I called Disney just yesterday, they told me a manager was going to call me back. To no avail. This is not the Disney I know.
DO I STILL GET MY TICKETS SINCE I VOLUNTEERED BEFORE THE PROGRAM
ENDED? We are literally in limbo.
that doesn’t make sense. when you sign up, you do it through the hands on network. you have an account that has all your info. mine is still there and it’s after the promotion ended. just log into your account. and you HAVE to have one, you couldn’t sign up to volunteer with disney without one. so just go into your account and print your info, that states you volunteered, and go from there.
I love the uneducated responses.
best one has to be…
“It’s not because Disney reached its goal of 1 million registration. It’s because Disney felt they’re going to go broke if they don’t stop.”
I love that, Do you guys even read the crap you write before you post it? ever put any thought in your comments?
yes DISNEY, A company that’s been around since 1929. worth Around $54 BILLION, will go “broke” over a petty million tickets…
Some bright posters on here…
This was poorly planned. Almost a promotional scam, because of the publicity received for such a poorly planned program.
Disney did not anticipate a million people to volunteer, and many more tried to.
Forums are filled with people who couldn’t get into the web sign ups as the servers were overloaded. Even if you “got in”, by the time the organization scheduled your date to volunteer the tickets were gone.
How do you explain this to a bunch of elementary aged children who signed up to volunteer with a promise of a Disney ticket?
Do you have them go do their day of work they signed up for hoping they’ll leave with a good feeling inside, but knowing they won’t because they were promised a ticket? Do you cancel with the organization, and feel terrible for doing that?
Wow Disney, thanks’ for planning this so poorly and setting up a bad situation for so many parents!
This program definitely has me disappointed with Disney. If they really cared about the organizations they were endorsing, they would have extended their goals to be more than one million people. If I had known it was a “first to serve, first served” kind of thing I would have registered weeks ago instead of actually waiting until I had time to fulfill the service.
I totally agree about the disappointment with Disney. The TV and magazine advertisements did NOT mention any blackout dates. The community doesn’t have blackout dates so why should the park? Our family it VERY disappointed. How do you explain to kids who enjoyed volunteering their time with the community, this is not the 1st time we have did community service, and then the reward is not valid due to DISNEY’S blackout dates. These dates should have been posted on ALL advertising with the program. The fine print in the agreement just does not cut it. DISNEY sets high hopes to children then takes it away from them.
Both, me and my 11 years old daughter, then we received only one free ticket under my name although I did sign up my daughter electronically and she did sign in and out on the activity day. Imagine how 11 years old would feel that she did not get a free ticket to her dream land. I promised that we will do another volunteering work and this is why I checked the website and was sadden to know that it is not more there.
I AM SO SAD BY SOME OF THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON THIS WEBSITE ABOUT THE DISNEY GIVE A DAY AWAY. MY 8 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER AND HER BROWNIE TROOP VOLUNTEREED TO FEED THE HOMELESS, AND THE SITE ALSO ALLOWED FOR THE CHILDRENS FAMILYS TO VOLUNTEER TOO, SO ALL OF US REGISTERED AND GOT TO SPEND A MOMENT WITH OUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM HOW IT FEELS TO HELP SOMEONE IN NEED, AND HOW IT MADE THAT PERSON SMILE, AND EVEN AFTER MAKING THAT MEMORY DISNEY LET ME AND MY FAMILY MAKE ANOTHER MEMORY AT DISNEYLAND FOR FREE. NOW MY DAUGHTER AND HER FRIENDS WANT TO VOLUNTEER ALL THE TIME EVEN WITH OUT THE DISNEYLAND PASS, THEY JUST WANT TO SEE SOMEONE SMILE AT THE HELP THEY ARE GIVING. I THINK DISNEY IS DOING A GREAT THING DOING THIS AND NOT A SCAM. THEY ARE NOT IN IT TO MAKE MONEY, DISNEY MAKES MONEY 24/7 REGUARDLESS OF WHAT THEY DO, AND EVEN IF IT WAS A TAX BREAK FOR DISNEY, WHY SHOULD THEY BE FAULTED FOR IT?? THEY DIDNT SCAM ANYONE OUT OF A TICKET, THEY DID SOMETHING KIND IN RETURN. AND IF YOUR YOUR VOUCHER EMAIL WAS MISSING ANYONE ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CONTACT THE PERSON IN CHARGE OF THE CHARITY EVENT AND THEY GET IT TAKEN CARE OF, I KNOW THIS BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO ME. THEY ARE NOT IN IT TO SCAM ANYONE. HOW AWFUL TO BE SO NEGATIVE TOWARDS SOMETHING SO POSITIVE, GUESS U CANT MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. FROM ME AND MY FAMILY, THANK YOU DISNEY!
This was a wonderful program. Our family volunteered at the plant nursery in a local park. It was an awesome way to spend the day. We were able to redeem our tickets, and yes…we went AFTER the million mark was met. Anyone who signed up and completed their service the correct way, through the Hands On Network, should be in the computer.
Since we are AP holders, we used the tickets toward the cost of renewal. It was awesome of Disney to allow us to do so.
We will volunteer again for sure!
Well drat, sorry that I missed out on this promotion…
I agree. I signed up in February and the nonprofit organization we were signed up with emailed us after May 31 and said we were not registered with Disney. Disney is the one who sent the list of nonprofits to us! Now they say we cannot have the tickets because we did not register twice! Very dissapointing!
Thank you so much Disney. My grandmother is raising 5 kids and is on a really tight income. we volunteered to clean up the neighborhood that we live in. With out this program these 5 kids would have never had a chance to visit Disney. It was so amazing to see how excited they were to be cleaning the neighborhood they even said they wanted to clean up every weekend. Thanks again.
Just wanted to thank Disney. We signed up in Jan and completed our task on Apr. 24 The tickets were verifed and in my profile in 1 week. Some of the kids did not get a ticket for 1 reason or another so I called Disney and they were really helpful out of the 15 of us that signed up 6 of the kids didnt get a ticket. Today I got a very friendly call saying all the kids tickets were approved and that all we had to do was print and enjoy the day at disney. Thank you so much for making this such a memorable experiance for my family. we will be in disneyland in a couple of weeks and make some more memorys.