Five Tenants for Improving Your own Life and Changing the World Through Gift Giving
Having worked in the nonprofit sector for my entire career I’ve come to appreciate the first Tuesday of November. It’s a big day for nonprofits all over the country, as they hope to siphon some of our holiday shopping budget to support their work for the coming year.
Raising money in the nonprofit sector involves a complex strategy. The goal is to convince people to donate money not for a good or service that will benefit them personally, but for a cause. If 2022 hit the rest of us hard, it’s hitting nonprofits even harder.
Giving Tuesday reminds us of the important work getting done around us. Let’s keep this community-centric focus into 2023.
We can start by considering what we support with our extra money, time, and energy.
What I love about Giving Tuesday is that it gives me a chance to think about what I really care about, what work I respect, what I would miss if it disappeared.
When many give they do so through a lens of what will be the most effective, meaning, dollars will be used as efficiently or purposefully as possible. And that is a fair approach to spending our money and time. I agree that we should support those who are positioned to do the most good with our resources. But it is important to remember that not everything in this world is quantifiable in the ways we wish to quantify value. This is again a capitalist way of framing something far more nuanced than a financial spreadsheet.
Humans are emotional, complex creatures. We care about our time and money differently, we have vastly different skills and interests, and at the end of the day we want to feel good.
Focus on “Local” - For me personal relationships matter a lot. I crave community and tangible influence. When I give my money I like to give it to people I really know. I trust what they’ll do with it, I trust they’ll appreciate it, and I will see or feel the difference because I am intimately connected to their work. It feels good to know I am directly supporting friends and my own hometown, and I am gaining strong social connections by becoming involved in my own community.
Focus on Personal Values - Find organizations with missions that align with what you most care about. There is a lot to fix in the world right now. But whether we feel most passionately about racism, sexism, ageism, or whatever else, all of our problems stem from the same root causes. The problems come together, like branches in a tree eventually leading to the same trunk and roots. The good news is, we can fight the same fight as we follow our own passions and skills.
Focus on Small but Mighty Fighters - A little bit can go a long way for a small group. There is certainly something to be said for supporting well-oiled, giant machines of charity. They can pool a lot of small gifts together to make a big global impact. You can’t go wrong there. But if you, like me, have just a small amount to spend and you want to know it will make a difference, you might find a bigger emotional reward in supporting somebody small. For the small and mighty, a little bit of money goes a long way.
Focus on an Innovative Risk - How many times would you have taken a really exciting risk, if only you’d had more support? How many really cool ideas have we lost because they didn’t find the right people to give the right support at the right time? Though I see the importance of innovative work, it is work I don't want to do myself! Why not take a leap and support people who can change the world in ways we ourselves couldn’t have imagined?
Focus on What is Actually Helpful - Many times when we do something to be helpful we do not realize we are actually doing damage. Feeding bread to ducks, unnatural and unhealthy food for them, also trains them to become dangerously reliant on people. This is an example of an activity many do because it makes them feel like they did something nice, but it's not what is actually needed or helpful. Similarly, bringing all your leftover cans of random pumpkin pie filling to the food shelf is another less-than-helpful act. If you don’t want your old random food, mismatched socks, or worn out shoes, nobody else does either. Instead of making assumptions, giving only as convenient or fun for you, or becoming a burden, do your homework. Read websites, ask questions, or explain what you have to offer. Be open to the idea that you are not the expert and you may not get to help in the way you want to. The learning we can embrace is a great part of the process of giving. The first step in giving, community building, and compassion, is always to listen.
