#Giving Tuesday!

We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals….Wouldn’t it be great to have a day for giving back?

"Giving Tuesday is intended to open the holiday season on a philanthropic note and put heart back into the holidays," says Sarah Renusch, World Vision's Gift Catalog Director.  I have shared my favorite links with you for gifts that make a difference.  If you haven't, today is the perfect day to look at my Friends and my Compassion choices for giving. 

Big Ideas for Families
From Beth Teitelman, 92Y’s Director of Scholarship Services, and Fretta Reitzes, Director of 92Y’s Wonderplay Initiative and Goldman Center for Youth & Family. Beth and Fretta are the co-authors of Wonderplay and Wonderplay, Too!


**Comments in bold italics are from yours truly!**

• Honor the people in your community who keep everyone safe and healthy. Prepare a meal and deliver it to their place of work. Keep it simple, healthy and tasty. Include hand made cards, place mats, and thank you notes so that everyone in the family gets to contributes something. Deliver the meal together as a family. It is especially meaningful to share this moment together.

We have a fire house just down the road - this is something we can totally do! 

• Have a family conversation about your favorite foods and the healthy foods you having been trying to eat. Take some of those foods from your cabinets (non perishable) and bring them to your local food pantry.

YES!  Always!

• As a family, empty your pockets and your piggy banks once every month! Collect 10% (or whatever percent you decide) of the money, and decide together where you want that money to go in your community.

Nice idea!

• Home Treasure Hunt! Look in your closets at home …kitchen tools, dishes, towels and sheets, toys, books, school supplies. Collect what is not being used, what hasn’t been used in a long time, and the extras you have, and donate to a program that sets up families in new homes.

Love this idea!

• Keep your family’s commitment to giving alive throughout the year! As a family, take out a calendar and mark four days on the calendar (one in each season works well) that are not connected to traditional holidays. Donate food to your local food pantry on those days. Most places are flooded with donations of gifts and food around the holidays. It’s the other times in the year that are more challenging.

Help is needed all year long, I try to remember this but like the idea of picking specific days to donate so it doesn't slip through the cracks. 

• “Change of Season” – At the beginning of each new season, think of one specific item that is needed. For instance, gloves and hats for winter, socks for fall, T-shirts for summer, etc. Do a collection in your neighborhood, building, or school for just that one item and donate. The younger children enjoy counting up the number of items that have been collected.

My son's 3rd grade class is doing this for winter and their goal is 300 items of hats, scarves, gloves and socks.  What a neat idea!

• Give up a meal as a family and donate the money you would have spent to your favorite charity.

Every family can do this for one meal!  We did it for 40 days!  and now we are continuing a different style of eating as a result of that fast and making a difference in some sweet children's lives; as well as our own.   

• Hold a neighborhood yard or bake sale and donate proceeds to an organization in need.

• Talk as a family about causes that are important to you, perhaps one that has had an impact on your family. Research to find a walk, bike ride, or run supporting that cause and join in as a team. Get your family, friends, and neighbors to support you. Set a goal and raise it for your cause.

Kids don't always know that $1,000 is a lot of money and so they don't have our low expectations on raising funds.  Encourage your children to fund raise through an activity and don't let your own low expectations of what is possible influence them.

• For an entire week or two, everyone in the family skips the “extras” Take the money you would have spent on after school treats, a special ice cream, or coffees from your favorite vendor, and collect it all in a jar. Watch it mount and donate to your local food pantry to help others get the essentials foods they need.

Very similar to what we did with A Place at the Table on a very realistic "do-able" level!

• Matching Funds- two variations! For the weeks between Thanksgiving and the holidays, save a selection of the end of the year contribution requests arriving in the mail. Each person in the family chooses one cause that is important to them, and the other members make a joint contribution to that cause as a holiday gift. Another way to do this is to have each child chooses a cause, designate a personal contribution from allowance or birthday money, and parents and extended family match the child’s contribution. Lots of important thinking and talking involved in choosing both causes from the many solicitations that arrive, deciding how much to contribute, and learning how the non profit world functions.

If you don't already do something where you decide as a whole family, this is very meaningful.  We do something similar each December and it has become one of the most meaningful important times of our December celebration.