Giving Tuesday

Even now when it feels like we are in a normal holiday season, things may still not be completely understandable and the world remains difficult to completely figure out. In this year when the financial world feels a little unsettled, Black Friday and Cyber Monday still did pretty well for business on the whole. Giving Tuesday, however, did not fare so well.

I came across this information in a CNN article, where the first number given is that $3.1 billion was donated on Giving Tuesday, a 0.6% gain over 2022, which seemed okay by me. There was a 10% decline in the number of Americans who participated, though, and that was more concerning.

And that feeling only continued throughout the article as it mentioned a report from Giving USA released this past June that reported Americans are giving the lowest percentage of their disposable income since 1995.

I think it is easy to explain some of this from a year-to-year perspective as inflation certainly must have had an impact on this number over the past few years – and it is easy to see it taking another year or two for that to catch up to itself. And then through the pandemic, even if there were some obvious places where money could be given to help the many in need, there were enough people struggling financially that overall numbers could be affected.

But to have a low point since 1995? I mean, that’s even before people could read blogs like this. Heck, it was before the word blog existed.

This oh-so-modern blog entry is now a small plea to help offset this if you can. I am fully aware that not everyone has the means to give, and when that is the case, it is much more important to take care of yourself first.  And giving doesn’t have to mean an all-out George Costanza Human Fund level of donations in lieu of Christmas presents. (a reference that may feel incredibly dated but is from a TV episode that also did not exist as of 1995). So, if you have the ability to do something, even a small thing, it will not only do good but it will feel good.

​Too often in our work world here, donations are only discussed as tax deductions. This is a good time of year, however, to realize they are so much more. In a world that can often feel very confusing, let’s be good to each other when we can.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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