Lisa Noël Babbage

Author, Teacher, Philanthropist

Nov. 26, 2018

As #GivingTuesday approaches, a day set aside to funnel part of our holiday spending toward nonprofit organizations, we find ourselves looking deep into budgets wondering what if any, we can do. When dollars and donations aren’t possible, what do we do to give back?

Giving Tuesday became a charitable movement in the United States in 2012. Black Friday and Cyber Monday birthed the way of refocusing the commercialization of the holiday season and has, since its inception, garnered over 640 million dollars in donations, 45 million of which occurred last year alone through Facebook. As our economies continue to improve, we can only expect this year’s numbers to break previous records. But as some analysts pointed out, #GivingTuesday does not always benefit small or start up non-profits, but instead tends to pad the pockets of globally recognized organizations with tremendous budgets. Despite the number of government agencies that filter requests for civic and community need to local agencies, the dollars don’t always follow the same paper trail.

So on a day where you may not know where you giving dollar goes, what would you do to give back in a real way? Many communities are still reeling from mid-term election fiascoes; debates over half time performances at the Superbowl open old wounds. Americans seeking resolution to the hurts of the past (and present) must focus their attention on the one-on-one encounters we will have to look back on as we close out 2018. With just a few weeks of “giving” on our minds, we must seek within our own sphere of influence to find ways of adding the necessary ingredients into our life recipe: things like hope, and of course, love.

Sharing hope or love, as intangible as those two things sound, are actually the most liberating and cost effective transactions we can take part in, especially this time of year. Winter and its co-collaborator “holiday” tend to cause lonely people to feel even more lonely. It is in this season that more suicides happen; more heartbreaks, and more breakdowns tend to occur. You may not have noticed that neighbor of yours who really doesn’t have any one in their life, but perhaps it’s time you did. When you think about giving on #GivingTuesday or any other day, what would you do if all people needed was a little love.

I Choose Love Campaign will be sponsoring Maranatha House Ministries this #GivingTuesday.

Join us by giving at https://www.gagives.org/c/GGD/a/mhmusa/donate/