Now is the time. Everyone is getting requests for support this holiday season. It happens every year. Any charity you have ever supported will be sending you a mailer to ask you to support them again this year.
The need is real. Although we are seeing it at the gas pump, in the grocery store, and online, whether purchasing necessities or gifts, the price of living is higher than ever. Community charities incur increased costs of providing the services too.
A unique giving opportunity is Giving Tuesday, a worldwide phenomenon. First comes Thanksgiving, then Black Friday, named after the concept, that businesses work for almost an entire year in the red hoping to find their accounting in the black when the holiday season starts. After that there’s Small Business Saturday. Our local businesses need your help, too. They are your neighbors, offering goods and services you need every day, and they hope you will help them stay in business.
Cyber Monday follows, with constant opportunities popping into your online feed to save money on the perfect gift for that perfect person. It would seem that everyone wants a piece of your hard-earned savings.
Now, here comes Giving Tuesday, November 24, an initiative focused solely on non-profit organizations. Giving Tuesday was created in the United States in 2012 to counteract the spending of Black Friday through Cyber Monday, and to show the need for charitable giving. The idea quickly made its way across the world and is now an international initiative. It was a simple idea, creating a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement inspiring hundreds of millions donors to give, collaborate, and celebrate, generosity.
Non-profit organizations are built with the idea that they are here for a social purpose, to make the community a better place to live and to offer benefit to those they encounter in their service projects. Non-profit organizations include public charities, clinics, and hospitals, legal aid societies, volunteer services organizations, labor unions, professional associations, research institutes, museums, and agencies that offer services to help citizens access government programs. Nonprofit organizations typically operate at a loss and rely heavily on donors to continue operations. And that is where the extensive fundraising comes in.
Giving Tuesday imagines a world built upon shared humanity and generosity and hopes to inspire a world where generosity is part of every-day life. Whether it is making someone smile, helping a neighbor, or stranger, showing up for an issue we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts, and everyone has something to give.
The global map available at www.givingtuesday.org/#mapintro is impressive, with close to 90 countries worldwide now participating in this event and large foundations worldwide offering their support, as well.
When was the last time a friend or family member mentioned giving to a charity instead of giving some other holiday gift? Well Giving Tuesday offers you a world full of options including some close to home. The non-profits who send E-mail, call, or post on your social media feed, are hoping their message resonates with you. They hope you remember all the good they have done, that the images they share will hit you in the heart and make you smile, shed a tear, and pull out your debit card. They are depending on you, and they hope that catching you at the start of the holiday spending season, they will benefit from your good will.
Your donations are appreciated any time of the year, but Giving Tuesday, November 29, offers an opportunity to not just support their cause, but to invigorate them during the stressful end of the year. Please consider giving this Giving Tuesday. Whatever cause you choose, you will help our community become stronger and make our lives brighter.
Barb Nadeau is the community relations manager for the Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois, representing five counties. Barb’s career includes many years as a professional television and radio host, as well as a print and social media journalist, and as a volunteer coordination professional, networking amongst non-profit social service agencies throughout the State of Illinois. She is a freelance writer and an elected alderman in the City of Plano. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com.