Giving Tuesday

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday and your social media will likely be flooded with pleas for money from nonprofits around the world. With over a decade of experience in the nonprofit world, I have been on both the donor side and “in the trenches” sweating my bum off trying desperately to make a difference any way I knew how. The conclusion I have come to is…both roles matter. You can’t have one without the other. Organizations cant survive without funds, and the public can’t change the world without a cause to believe in. 

The point of #GivingTuesday isn’t to make you feel bad about spending money on Black Friday. The point is to show you that your disposable income can mean life or death for someone else, likely someone you will never even meet. I have seen it first-hand. You don’t have to get a passport, you don’t even have to leave your couch, you simply have to open your wallet. 

Whether it is $10 or $10,000, your financial support is what allows nonprofits to keep doing what they are doing. There are people all over the world and in your backyard who have already learned the language, studied the culture, gotten the education, and put in the blood sweat and tears into the work they are doing. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel. The world doesn’t need you to go start an organization. But, those organizations DO need you to join them in their journey. What does that mean? The $10 we randomly spend at 7-eleven, or even the $5 Starbucks can mean a world of opportunity when you are on the ground in Southwest Asia looking for antibiotics, or trying to feed the belly of a hungry baby in Haiti. 

I truly believe that we can do this together. And we can do it without judging each other for whatever life path we have chosen. So tomorrow let’s put away our political agendas, and preconceived ideas about money and join together to truly make an impact on the world. After all, the only way we can change the world, is together. 

Find a cause that means something to you, set up recurring monthly donations that automatically come out of your account each month. This makes less work for you and helps organizations be able to plan financially. $5 or $500, I promise you, you are making a difference.

-Written by Callie Himsl, Communications Director