Today is an ideal opportunity to embrace the meaning of the Christmas season. GivingTuesday places a focus on nonprofits, encouraging donations and providing a reminder that the joy of the holidays is enhanced by what we do for others.
In the wake of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, it is a welcome relief from the commercialism and consumerism that often overshadows the season. And Americans have embraced it.
Launched more than a decade ago as a simple social media hashtag, GivingTuesday raised a reported $3.1 billion in donations in 2023. It has grown each year, officials say, although evidence suggests that year-round charitable donations have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic. For nonprofits, today is an opportunity to raise money and engage with supporters, appealing to our better nature.
That includes The Columbian. As Editor Craig Brown wrote recently in a column: “While The Columbian remains a for-profit business, an important part of our local journalism is funded by gifts to our Community Funded Journalism program. Generous donors — we have several hundred, large and small — have made donations to the Local Media Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports journalism, in the name of The Columbian.”
That foundation supports four reporter positions, enhancing our ability to cover Clark County. Brown writes: “None of the money goes to support The Columbian’s profit margin. It all has to be spent on news gathering.”
But The Columbian is just one local beneficiary of GivingTuesday. Nonprofits that provide support with food, housing, medical care, child care — and numerous other functions of a well-ordered society — also partake.
Of course, any charitable donation should be accompanied by some research. For many a “charity,” donations line the pockets of organizers rather than supporting the proclaimed purpose. Independent organizations such as Charity Navigator and Charity Watch offer online information about specific nonprofits and provide details about where the money goes. They also have tips for investigating charities.
And, of course, there are reasons to question why the need for private nonprofits is so extensive in the United States. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, Americans donated more than $550 billion to charities in 2023 — a reflection of our nation’s generosity, but also the pressing need.
The typical nonprofit raises between 17 percent and 22 percent of its annual funding during December, reflecting the power of the Christmas spirit. As described in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, Christmas is “a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.”
That is the impetus behind GivingTuesday and its spot on the calendar — the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Asha Curran, who founded the movement, told USA Today that the purpose was to “make good go viral.” Curran added: “The most important thing I want Americans to know about GivingTuesday is … to not underestimate the power of every small generous action. Giving on GivingTuesday feels even better because you know you’re part of something bigger than yourself.”
Charitable donations should not be limited to a single day shortly after Thanksgiving; the need persists year-round. But for those seeking an excuse to make a local donation, today provides one.
