After the holiday shopping mania of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, today is the day to think about giving back.
Giving Tuesday has been observed annually since 2012 on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It kicks off the charitable season on a global scale, offering local nonprofits a chance to fundraise as part of a big online stage.
Nearly all the agencies participating this year are promoting their Giving Tuesday fundraising efforts on their social media platforms or their websites. Giving Tuesday is organized around the idea of donating over the internet as an easy way to help local organizations while keeping fundraising costs down.
Here’s a roundup of a few organizations seeking your help today, and how they intend to use the dollars you donate.
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Su Casa Columbus
Su Casa Columbus, a local agency that provides programming, service and opportunities to meet the short- or long-term needs of the Latino community, is making its first foray into a Giving Tuesday fundraising effort.
Executive Director Sylvia Babcock said the organization is working through Su Casa’s social media presence using organizational tools provided by Giving Tuesday to start its fundraising effort.
Su Casa would like to raise $500 in its first time as a Giving Tuesday option, in an effort to set up an emergency fund which the agency has not had before, she said.
“For those of us living in Columbus, we have so many organizations who are trying to meet the basic needs of residents, but there are certain times when needs aren’t met,” Babcock said.
For 2018, Su Casa hopes to have a fund in place to fill some of those gaps.
One example of how the fund would be used is when non-English speaking individuals find themselves in Columbus rather than the destination they were planning, and they need help to get there but have limited options, she said.
“It happens on a weekend, and many times they are referred to us and we are trying to help them complete where they need to go — Love Chapel may already be closed — so we could use the fund to go out and get them some food and to arrange to make up the amount they need for a bus ticket to complete their journey, she said.
Babcock envisions that the fund would be used in small dollar amounts to help people with immediate needs at times when some social service agencies aren’t available.
“It’s hard to turn people away,” she said. “Many times, this money is coming out of staff members’ pockets to help people.
In addition to the emergency fund, Su Casa also would like to do workshops next year for Latino women to help with finance, budgeting and self-image. Some of the money could be used to pay for instructors for a series of classes, she said.
In addition to these needs, Su Casa currently provides translation services, Notary services, interpreters for court appearances and medical appointments, English classes, school supplies and more.
HOW TO HELP: To donate on Giving Tuesday, visit sucasacolumbus.com and click on “About Us,” where a drop-down menu takes you to a donation option.
Foundation For Youth
Foundation For Youth is teaming with the Newman’s Own Foundation, founded by the late actor Paul Newman, for its Giving Tuesday campaign.
The agency works with the community’s youth to help them become successful adults through programs such as Boys & Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Columbus Youth Camp, Trailblazers, Girls on the Run and FFY Athletics.
Using the crowdfunding platform CrowdRise, FFY is participating in the Newman’s Own Foundation $500,000 Challenge, which will award monetary prizes to entered nonprofits who raise the most money between Nov. 21 and Jan. 3.
The minimum donation is $10 and the maximum one-transaction donation is $10,000, according to contest rules. Grand prize is $150,000 for first place, $50,000 for second place and $30,000 for third, with monetary prizes continuing down to 10th place at $2,500.
Brittany Gray, FFY’s senior development officer, said the organization is promoting the agency’s participation in its social media postings on Facebook.
FFY doesn’t have a specific goal for the contest, but hopes to use the money to help pay for scholarships for youngsters whose families may not be able to afford registration fees.
“We have a lot of donations that are specified for our scholarship program,” she said. “FFY has a policy that we will never turn a child away based on their family’s financial situation.”
FFY may use donations from $10 to $50 to help a child afford fees to attend Boys & Girls Club programming, and $50 provides a scholarship for a girl to participate in the Girls on the Run for an entire season. A $100 donation allows a child to attend Columbus Youth Camp during summer break.
HOW TO HELP: To participate in the Newman’s Own Challenge, visit FFY’s Facebook page or its website at foundationforyouth.com/ where instructions on how to donate are available.
Clarity of South Central Indiana
Clarity of South Central Indiana is hoping to receive donations to match a $40,000 challenge goal and bring in $80,000 today during Giving Tuesday.
The agency works in six counties — Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Shelby and Jennings — to provide help and spiritual guidance for people facing unplanned pregnancies or seeking treatment for a sexually transmitted disease.
Development specialist Al White said today is the fourth year Clarity has turned to Giving Tuesday to provide an additional fundraising boost for the organization. Other fundraisers Clarity has during the year to help fund its free services to 5,149 clients this year include banquets and a golf challenge.
The $40,000 challenge goal is the sum from a large number of end-of-year donors whose donations are pooled to make the challenge, White said.
Clarity is asking donors consider contributing $125 as a goal, an estimate of what each client’s visit costs, he said. Clients who believe they may be pregnant receive an ultrasound and may receive additional donated items such as a maternity set, car seats or other items to help after the birth.
Donations also help with the agency’s educational efforts, which reach out to about 80 schools in the six-county area to provide sexual-risk avoidance education to about 10,000 students each year, White said.
Other services that donations support include the clinic for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and a recent program called “Hearts Restored,” which provides help for clients experiencing grief over a past abortion choice to begin a healing process for men and women.
Clarity’s administrative offices in Columbus are located at 732 Smith St. and medical offices are located at 2420 Seventh St., according to its website. Other Clarity centers are in Greensburg, Nashville, North Vernon, Seymour and Shelbyville.
White will be accepting drive-in donations at the North Vernon center today, and all locations will be staffed to allow drop-off donations, White said. He plans to post updates throughout the day today on Giving Tuesday donations.
HOW TO HELP: To give, here are the options:
Through the website donation page: claritycares.org/donate/
Text to a link at claritycares.org or on the Clarity Facebook or Twitter pages.
Personal fundraising pages allow staff members to text links to supporters and monitor throughout the day as people give.
To learn more about Clarity, read the annual report at claritycares.org/annual-reports/.
Turning Point Domestic Violence Services
This year’s campaign for Turning Point isn’t subtle. Donations from Giving Tuesday will be used for a “Raise Our Roof” campaign to place new roofs on the agency’s emergency shelter for domestic violence victims and on the transitional housing unit.
Turning Point’s mission is to work toward the prevention and elimination of dating and domestic violence.
It’s the third year Turning Point has worked to raise money with a partner on Giving Tuesday, with all the money being used for capital improvements on the two buildings, said Lisa Shafran, the organization’s president. In previous years, the Haddad Foundation provided a matching grant to paint the shelter and a major interior renovation, and Kenny Glass did a matching grant to replace the heating and air conditioning systems, Shafran said.
This year, Dave and Jo McKinney of Columbus are matching all donations up to $25,000 in a campaign that runs today through Dec. 31, designed to raise an estimated $50,000 through the matching grant for the new roofs.
A roofing company has told Turning Point officials that the transitional housing roof needs to be replaced now and the shelter roof, a combination of a flat roof that needs a rubberized coating and a shingled portion, needs to be done soon.
“So we are going to try to do both at the same time,” Shafran said.
Turning Point’s direct-mail campaign already has started in addition to the Giving Tuesday effort.
The agency operates an around-the-clock crisis helpline and an emergency shelter, as well as providing legal assistance for victims and other programs. The agency serves Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson and Shelby counties.
HOW TO HELP: To donate on Giving Tuesday to the “Raise Our Roof” campaign, go to turningpointdv.org/events and click on the #Giving Tuesday View Details button, and then click on Donate to #Giving Tuesday.
A donation page has been set up at weblink.donorperfect.com/turningpointgivingtuesday.
Or donors may send a check to Turning Point, Post Office Box 103, Columbus, Indiana 47202 ATTN: Raise Our Roof. All donations must be made by Dec. 31 to qualify for the match.
For more information, visit turningpointdv.org.
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To learn more about Giving Tuesday, visit givingtuesday.org.
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