I know I am a little late, but I had to write about this past #GivingTuesday for our nonprofit organization #LightsBackOn but first to let you know what Giving Tuesday is about.
This year, Giving Tuesday was on November 29, 2022. It is “a movement to unleash the radical giving power across the world.” There are no specific requirements to participate. Whether you are helping a neighbor with their groceries, showing up for an issue that is meaningful to you, cutting someone’s grass at no cost to them, or calling and seeing about someone you have not seen or spoken to in a long time or promoting the mission of another nonprofit organization just to name a few generous acts and these can be done throughout the year, not just on Giving Tuesday.
Radical generosity is the concept that someone else’s suffering should be just as intolerable to us as it is to them. Just as our nonprofit organization is built around compassion for people and our experiences of not having electricity for that year or being homeless, understanding someone else’s suffering, not only because you have experienced it, but not wanting others to have to go through it, gives a totally different outlook on the suffering of others.
This was our first Giving Tuesday event, and I was excited. The website was being revamped and new blog posts were supposed to be presented to bring in more traffic. Volunteers from #Catchafire had already been helping get everything together not just for Giving Tuesday but for the long haul. I was also supporting and promoting the missions of other nonprofit organizations prior to the date and was going to continue that on Giving Tuesday and after. Unfortunately, for Lights Back On, things did not go as planned.
I had not been feeling well prior to the event date and now still have not fully recovered from whatever had been going on since then. The day before Giving Tuesday, the ailment seemed to take over and when the day arrived, I was sick. I was able to participate very little or at least not to the degree I would have liked to. The good news is, it is not over for Lights Back On, and we look forward to a greater, better, and more productive year in 2023.
So, how did your Giving Tuesday events turn out?