With Giving Tuesday around the corner, efforts to give back – locally, nationally and internationally – are ramping up! But why stop there? The notion and act of giving doesn’t need an expiration date, just like resolutions don’t need to be put on hold until the first day of each year.
Here’s a list of some fun, creative and meaningful ways to give back this Giving Tuesday and beyond:
- Do a Kickstarter campaign. Get the community involved in helping to create and complete a social good project that will have a positive impact. One awesome project we found on Kickstarter, that has started to really evolve over the past year, is the Plus Pool project – the world’s very first water-filtering floating pool right in New York’s rivers.
- Make homemade meals for the homeless. The #HashtagLunchBag movement is an incredible example of how a simple idea to help others in need can grow into a global effort.
- Clean up your community. Pick up trash in your neighborhood or local park. Check out Litterati for more ideas and some incredible stats from this movement toward a litter free world.
- Run! Simply download the Charity Miles app on your phone, choose an organisation to support, and go! It’s that simple – whether you’re participating in a marathon or taking a light jog around your neighborhood, you could help raise funds for the organisation of your choice.
- Start your own fundraiser. Instead of birthday presents or holiday gifts, ask friends to support you by donating a small dollar amount to your fundraiser. You can bring clean drinking water to people in need around the world with 100% of the money you raise going toward building water projects via My Charity: Water; or you could even help build new schools for children in Ghana through Pencils of Promise.
- Volunteer. Check out VolunteerMatch to get matched for volunteer activities in your community.
- Support a social enterprise. Our team absolutely loves Sevenly, a social enterprise that creates custom designed t-shirts and helps to build awareness and raise funds for a number of different causes. Each week they partner with a new nonprofit or NGO, and $7 from every purchased t-shirt is donated to that organisation.
- Adopt a pet. Visit the Humane Society to search for pets in need of a home. You can also volunteer or donate money to this organisation to combat animal cruelty and support local animal shelters.
- Donate clothing to a local shelter. Grab the jacket in the back of your closet that you still haven’t worn yet, and #GiveItAway to GoodWill! There are a lot of people that will need our help, particularly during the cold months. Use the store locator on the Goodwill website to find a location near you!
- Offer your time and skills to someone in need. Oftentimes, this is more powerful than donating money. You never know whose day you might impact for the better!