After a weekend spent overindulging on food and shopping, it’s nice to have a day on the calendar that is specific to making a difference for others. Giving Tuesday is that day. It’s a “global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration…celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” says the Giving Tuesday website.
The day kicks off the charitable giving season where donors focus on holiday and end-of-year giving. The #GivingTuesday website helps to connect nonprofits with donors, offering up tools for NPOs and search engines for donors. It also gives ideas for individuals to help, beyond making a donation. A quick search of the Austin area yielded 479 results on the website, with options to support schools, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, universities, foundations, small businesses, and corporations. There’s also a field to search for specific organizations.
Unfortunately, the Giving Tuesday site doesn’t dive too deep with info, so if you want to search, say, Austin animal organizations — check out the Amplify Austin search engine from Central Texas-based I Live Here I Give Here. It’s an excellent, comprehensive resource for finding area nonprofits, if you don’t already have one.
Sharing and hash tagging your social posts will hopefully help encourage others to make a difference (and feel free to share this post everywhere so they know what the day is all about).
Here are just a few fun facts to encourage you to make a donation this #GivingTuesday:
- Last year, Giving Tuesday raised $300+ million in over 50 countries (Giving Tuesday).
- I Live Here I Give Here is home to another great day of giving — Amplify Austin Day. It happens next year from February 28 -March 1, 2018. This 24-hour fundraiser is a fun way for Austin charities to raise money, compete for prizes, and possibly gain extra support from sponsors.
- Your donations are tax deductible. So doing some serious good can also end up giving you a few perks along the way.
- Not looking to make a monetary donation? This is also the perfect time of the year to help out families in need for the holidays. You can also start up a new volunteer habit, which is always a great way to bond with family and friends or a great opportunity to meet new people.
Featured photo from Pixabay, Creative Commons licensed.
