#GivingTuesday: A Global Giving Movement

What’s better than Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday? Definitely #GivingTuesday! Celebrated on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) #GivingTuesday kicks off the season of giving, charity, and goodwill.

What Can You Give?

Take to social media and brush off your hashtags this may be the only time your Facebrag is appropriate!  You can give small or large, monetary, goods, or time.  As always, it is not about the ‘what’ it is about the ‘why.’  Give freely. Give cheerfully. Give thoughtfully.

Get the kids involved and come up with a family project. Need some ideas:

• Make Christmas Cards and deliver them to an assisted living facility or mail them to the troops.
• Check with your local church and find out what their Christmas missions are and how best you can help.
  • Do they need food for the food pantry
  • Do they need supplies for serving the homeless
  • Maybe bake casseroles for those who are homebound.
• Maybe you rake the neighbor’s lawn while you do your own.

If you have a little more to give this is the time of year most organizations could use your help in their various outreach projects.  You could find one near and dear to your family’s heart or a local charity in need.  Need help finding somewhere to give use the #GivingTuesday page to sort by location and organization type (religious, nonprofit, etc.).

Consider giving to smaller local charities.  Your donation of money, goods, and time has a much larger impact when you choose local over national or international.

One of the best things about heading into the end of the year is the general feeling of happiness and ease that sets in.  Sure, we still have bills to pay and kids to feed but it seems like we handle these stresses and each other with a bit more grace during this season.

…except for people using checks at the grocery store from 4-8 p.m.  I don’t think my grace extends that far.