Today is Giving Tuesday

In the last few years, it seems that the Thanksgiving holiday has become something of a roller coaster of days celebrating both generosity and materialism. This year, we have zigzagged from giving thanks on Thursday…

to cruising the malls for deals on Black Friday…

to supporting local businesses on Small Business Saturday

to remembering three decades of hope and despair on World AIDS Day on Sunday…

to surfing for more e-deals on Cyber Monday…

And today we arrive, exhausted but exhilarated, at Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday allows us all to round out this crazy cycle of shopping with a day of offering gifts of money and time to nonprofits.

And this year, to counter the trend of the “selfie” cellphone pic, many of us are planning on posting “unselfies” on social media today.

Here are our some of our unselfies:

EvelynUnselfie Mia Unselfie a paper pledging support to Firelight  

Join us for Giving Tuesday and post your own unselfie.

Here’s what you do:

  • Take a piece of paper and write the name of the cause you’ll be supporting this #GivingTuesday in bold letters.
  • Say what support you’ll be giving: for example, a donation, or volunteer time
  • Then hold the piece of paper in front of your face (because this is not about you), and take a picture.  This is your personal giving pledge.
  • Add the hashtags #givingtuesday and #unselfie
  • Share as widely as possible on social media.
  • Don't forget to tag us so we can see who participated! @FirelightFnd, Facebook.com/FirelightFoundation

Please also Tweet, Instagram, Facebook, and email your own unselfies as widely as possible.  We’d love for you to include our Fund: Child Safety in your Giving Tuesday pledges but really, the important thing is that you get your “unself” out there in support of Giving Tuesday.

Firelight NewsPeter Laugharnphilanthropy