By Gabrielle. Image by Charles Sykes.
You know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but did you know today is Giving Tuesday? It’s not a new giving platform; it’s an idea. It’s a call to action and a national movement to change the calendar and make history. The idea is to celebrate a new day dedicated to giving — when families, charities, businesses, community centers, students, retailers and others can come together to encourage more, better and smarter giving during the holiday season.
I’m so excited about this movement! I hope it becomes a full-on tradition. I get goosebumps when I think about the potential.
This is how I’m planning to participate. First, as a family, the devastation of #Sandy is still weighing heavily on our minds. Because of our 8 years in New York, we know so many friends that are spending their weekends helping with clean up and restoration efforts. And we know if we lived there still, we would want to be helping out as much as we can. We discussed #GivingTuesday with the kids and suggested we commemorate the day by making a family donation to a Sandy recovery fund. The kids were totally on board and even asked us if we would match their donations. (All those years of listening to NPR fundraising weren’t for nothing! : )
Second, in honor of #GivingTuesday, I’ve been working on a Gift Guide that features products that have a social good component. Products that provide jobs for people in need. I’ll be posting that later today. [Update: Here's the gift guide link.]
And third, I’ll be spreading the word about #GivingTuesday on my social media channels. On Twitter and Pinterest and Facebook. I hope you’ll join me!
If you’re participating, or have any good ideas on how to participate, I’d love to hear.
Happy Giving Tuesday!
P.S. — The #GivingTuesday founding partners include the UN Foundation, the 92nd Street Y, Skype, Microsoft, DonorsChoose.org, Kiva, GlobalGiving, the (RED) campaign, charity: water, and Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). More partners are joining every day.
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That’s beautiful, Gabrielle! God bless all the golden good hearts…
Wow, I hadn’t heard of this, but it is SOO much better than the also-recently-coined “Mobile Tuesday”, and that alone makes me feel inclined to participate. Thanks for the heads up.
Mobile Tuesday? That one is news to me. I have to go search it…
Love this! We were going to get our tree tonight but now I think we’ll find someone for our family to serve this evening. Thank you for sharing, Gabrielle!
Thanks for this post Gabrielle…wanted to share another great gift idea for all your design centric Mom’s..Architecture for Humanity’s latest edition of “Design Like You Give a Damn 2″ Showcasing the best examples of global pro-bono design by committed architects and designers who offer their services after disasters like Sandy, Katrina, and the Tsunami in Japan. There are some amazing projects and inspired design solutions. Proceeds of the book go toward supporting future design teams. Best, Nori
PS . here’s a shopping link :
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Like-You-Give-Damn/dp/0810997029
Sounds super cool, Nori! Thanks for the link.