Giving Tuesday. 6 ways to give back to your community.

Thanksgiving has just passed and giving Tuesday is approaching. It’s a perfect day to show gratitude for being able to celebrate holidays with the closest people, with food, and in warm homes. Those of us who actually have food on the tables and a rooftop over our heads are already lucky enough. So why not spare a few dollars or a few minutes, and to help someone else in need?

I am a big advocate of signing petitions, speaking up, helping, donating, sharing, and volunteering. I am not an activist in any shape or form, but I admire people who put others before themselves and live selflessly. Therefore, I created a list of organizations, petitions, and actions you can take this giving Tuesday and this holiday season in general.

I think giving Tuesday should be every Tuesday. But if each of us can be extra kind this one day, it’s a great starting point already.

How can you show gratitude this season?

Donate

This giving Tuesday there are many ways to give back to your community. You can donate money, food, or requested items like blankets, hygiene products, and clothes to the local shelters. A lot of the shelters or organizations that support animals, women, and children, homeless people experience a shortage of certain items or help. It can happen because of the cold weather and they don’t have enough food or warm clothes or blankets, or because people usually travel during the holiday season. From my experience, animal shelters always have a shortage of one thing or another.

Stay alert of the local organizations and shelters in your town or city.

In order to really give back to your community, I would suggest looking into:

• Local animal shelters and rescues
• Women and kids shelters and organizations helping women in domestic violence situations
• Homeless shelters
• Organizations that support single mothers
• Organizations that help orphanages OR see if local orphanages need help
• Organizations that help families and kids in poverty. I’d look into organizations that provide kids with food and/or school supplies.

Shop locally

This giving Tuesday, you can show gratitude to your community by buying local produce, gifts that are made by local vendors, or by visiting local restaurants and coffee shops instead of chain restaurants. You can also order handmade gifts, for example, from Etsy.

Kindness

Be kind to people. Especially those who work in a cold or stressful environment. Be kind to the people at the bars and restaurants, fast food restaurants, stores, mailmen and mailwomen, delivery people, and people who take care of your house or neighborhood. Those people take care of those who are luckier to have other jobs and ensure that our communities are safe, clean, and enjoyable.

And show kindness, not just this giving Tuesday but every day. As someone who worked in retail and was an “essential worker” during the pandemic in Belgium, I can tell it’s a very tiring job and a simple “thank you” from a customer can be very uplifting.

Organizations, Causes, and Petitions for Giving Tuesday

These are my favorite organizations or organizations that I previously donated to, or volunteered at. I highly recommend doing your own research and seeing the ways of how you can give back to your community locally. If you cannot donate, you can bring awareness by sharing on your social media, with your friends and families, commenting on the posts, or even liking them.

Again, please, do your own research.

Organizations

These are the organizations that I personally trust and either volunteered at or donated to. Why not to use this giving Tuesday to show extra support to these organizations?

• Lady Freethinker. This is a well-known organization that speaks up for animals around the world. You can sign a petition or donate.
• Second Chance. This is an animal shelter I volunteer at and have previously donated to. They are based in Raleigh, NC. They take care of the cats and dogs and constantly look for new homes for our furry friends.
• Safe Heaven for Cats. Another great place that takes of the cats in Raleigh, NC. They have a lot of cute cats and constantly need help.
• Takis Shelter. This is an infamous shelter located in Crete, Greece. Takis is an amazing person who saves the dogs and other animals, takes care of them, and looks for families to adopt these poor animals.
• Dog Rescue Shelter Mladenovac – an animal shelter located in Mladenovac, Serbia. It’s the largest no-kill shelter in Serbia and they have a lot, and I mean it, A LOT of animals. So as you can imagine they are in great need of donations.
• Stand for Trees is an organization that takes care of forests around the globe and tackles climate change.
• Act Blue, mainly Color of Change. It is one of the biggest online racial justice organizations. They lead different campaigns that highlight and fight racial injustice and help Black people to be seen and heard.
• Vanessa Guillen Foundation – Vanessa was brutally murdered at the military base in Texas and so far there is no justice served. The main suspect in her murder committed suicide and Vanessa’s sister Mayra fights for justice and for changes to be made in the military against sexual violence.

Missing people cases

I would highly recommend starting spreading awareness about missing people. Holidays can be an especially tough time for those who are missing their children, family members, and friends. No one should go through this.

You can check your local news outlets and police website, Twitter, or Facebook page for information about missing people in your area. You can also visit the FBI website to check the information about missing people.

Make a post about them, retweet, make an Instagram story, print out the poster, and place it in the local store or in a lobby of your apartment complex if allowed. We often underestimate the effect of online communities in missing people cases. But any exposure is good exposure in a missing person case.

Check the following websites for more information:

• Do you know where they are? 43 missing person cases the FBI needs help solving
• Amber Alert website
• National Silver Alert – an alert for missing seniors
• Missing in America – current updates on NBC
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Check current missing kids posters, donate or spread awareness.

Petitions and Go Fund Me Pages

• Lady Freethinker – sign various petitions to bring more attention to the animals and their rights
• Jelani Day go fund me page – a missing student’s official go fund me page. His family is looking for justice. FBI refused to get involved as of now and Jelani’s family desperately seeks answers to why their son and brother died.
• Help Mooka – help a dog brutally attacked by another dog to recover.
• Support Reese’s Law – a law that will make button battery manufacturers to follow national standards such as clear warnings and more secure placement of the batteries. Something that seems so natural to understand can be an emotional drastic change for you and your family. Apparently, in 2020, four thousand ingestions of button batteries were reported in the US only. It is estimated that only 11% of all cases are reported so this means the numbers are even higher.

Conclusion

This is only a small amount of platforms and organizations you can support this giving Tuesday or any other day. Please, do your own research, and find your own ways to give back to your community locally. Let’s spread extra kindness together this holiday season.

I am urging you and your community to keep spreading awareness, volunteering, and speaking up for those who can’t or are not allowed even when the holiday season is over and it is no longer a giving Tuesday.

Disclaimer: in no shape or form I am associated with these organizations financially or professionally, this is my personal experience and personal suggestions. I am not responsible for any issues that may occur between the organization and the third party. I am not benefiting financially from mentioning these companies on my blog.

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