Yesterday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has lately become known as "Giving Tuesday." Following the economic excesses of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday (Sunday presumably being for rest... fat chance), this is the day in which nonprofits solicit donations from holiday well-wishers to help further their mission. It's a day that a lot of institutions, zoos and aquariums among them, rely heavily on for meeting their fundraising goals for the year.
I'm pretty sure that two-thirds of the emails in my inbox this weekend were from organizations trying to remind me what Tuesday was, usually with the potential for my gift being matched. Panthera. International Crane Foundation. Turtle Survival Alliance. Every zoo or aquarium whose website I've so much as looked at. All worthwhile organizations in need of financial support. I knew I couldn't help all, or even many of them.
But I could help one.
Organizations relying on Giving Tuesday to get back is like trying to live for a year off the candy you get trick-or-treating on Halloween. It's a bonanza, but it's not enough and it's not sustainable (what would you do if it rained on October 31, to follow that analogy?) So instead, I've decided that for next year, I'm going to try to give a little every month. I may give to the same facility more than once, or to a different one every month. I haven't decided. What I have decided is that it's important to do one's part to support causes we believe in, and lip service and raising awareness only gets you so far. Most of us are "aware" of the problems the world faces. The question is, what will we do about it?
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