Tuesday, December 1st was #GivingTuesday, a nice idea that’s become a bit of a movement in recent years to combat the hardcore consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Besides all the support that worthy charities and community based organizations (hopefully) received, the world had even more heartening news when new parents Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan wrote a letter promising to give away the majority of their Facebook shares (currently worth 45 BILLION dollars) during their lifetimes.
Did you participate in #GivingTuesday? If so, did you do any research before you donated? If you plan to make some contributions in the future you may want to use a resource like Charity Navigator or Guide Star to ensure that you know who your contribution is going to and that your dollars are going as far as you want them to be.
And of course, we also have a couple of good resources:
Lapham’s Quarterly – Philanthropy. Lapham’s Quarterly is a great publication that examines one concept per issue.
Philanthropy In America: A History gives a great overview of giving in our country, with a look at how much the concept grew in the twentieth century and an understanding of how much American public life relies on giving.
Finally, can you guess which country is the most charitable in the world according to the World Giving Index?