Each year as the holiday season ramps up, we seem to be adding more themed days: Black Friday has now bled into Black Friday Weekend, which seems to now encompass Thanksgiving (and occasionally pre-Thanksgiving) as well. We’ve welcomed Cyber Monday and even Cyber Monday Week. It’s a time for holiday shoppers
to pound the pavement, wallets to drain and stress to skyrocket.
But, one of the more season-appropriate new holidays is Giving Tuesday, as consumers around the world are urged to donate to causes and organizations working for the greater good.
The meaning of the holiday season, regardless of your religious affiliations or beliefs, often centers around giving thanks and love to those who make our lives rich. That notion is extended through Giving Tuesday, as we are asked to look outside our own small corner of society to the richness infused into our society by the countless nonprofits and nonprofit workers who labor to make our communities richer, stronger places for all people.
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales grow to span a seemingly innumerable amount of days, Giving Tuesday should be given the same opportunity for growth. While giving back — through monetary contributions, in-kind investments or donations of time — to deserving charities on a singular day is valuable, those efforts shouldn’t be limited to a 24-hour period.
Instead of rushing from store to store to find deals and steals just to give loved ones something to unwrap, think of all that time could be used doing something where the impact would go much further and last much longer: making fundraising calls for a community center, assisting with facilities repairs at a youth-serving organization, helping plan a holiday outing at a senior agency or delivering meals to homeless.
With so many of our LGBT organizations underfunded by government and private agencies, and with the depth and breadth of the work they do despite funding challenges, giving back throughout the year is paramount to our community’s ongoing progress. Giving can take on so many different forms, but however we interpret it, it’s key that we start building the spirit of supporting our supporters every opportunity we can.