3 Ways Charlotteans Can Help for #GivingTuesday
By Alyssa Ruane
November 27, 2018
If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media within the past couple of days, you may have noticed a recurring hashtag. Or maybe you saw it last year, and let it slide by without truly ever asking what it meant. It’s just another hashtag, right?
Not in the case of #GivingTuesday.
This hashtag was a positive result of strangers talking to one another on social media—something you don’t hear happening often. Extending beyond news feeds and timelines, #GivingTuesday is a real day, the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, that was organized to be a global giving movement with more than 150 countries participating. Following the consumer-crazy holidays of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday is meant to “kick off the charitable season.”
This #GivingTuesday (GT), there are ways you can help at home in Charlotte. It’s not our city’s first rodeo, after all. According to the SHARE Charlotte, in four years, Charlotte has raised nearly $20 million in charitable gifts, inspiring more than 11,000 new donors, creating the largest community-wide campaign in 2016. SHARE Charlotte even took over the national GT Instagram a couple weeks ago.
That said, local organizations have made it simple for you to do good today. See below for a few #GivingTuesday opportunities you can seize today and spread the warmth beyond your own hearth this holiday season.
How to Help for #GivingTuesdayCLT
SHARE Charlotte
#GivingTuesday is like Christmas for SHARE Charlotte, which is an organization that works year-round to help Charlotteans get involved with area nonprofits. Today, SHARE will be posted up at the Wells Fargo Atrium (301 S. Tryon Street), which is dubbed the #GivingTuesdayCLT World Headquarters today. In an effort to inspire a million acts of good on this GT, the event at the Wells Fargo Atrium will have plenty of opportunities for you to lend a hand. Whether it’s tweeting about #GivingTuesdayCLT at the Twitter station, giving blood at the Red Cross bloodmobile that will be on site, or bringing canned goods to the food drive they’re hosting, you can give in many ways.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Charlotte
This national charity run by the fast-food giant has changed lives in communities around the country. Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) help keep families close to one another and provide resources and care needed when the family has a sick child. These homes become community safe havens for families going through such trying times—both financially and emotionally. To help those that need the RMH of Charlotte, you can make a small donation at participating restaurants, either at the drive-thru, counter, or the self-order kiosk. This giving opportunity begins today and ends December 9.
Additonally, Charlotteans can try to help RMHC raise $8,000 today to provide electricity to the RMH house on Morehead Street for two months. And through the partnership of The Leon Levine Foundation, the Foundation will match any new, lapsed, or increased donations made to the House throughout the holidays. You can also sign up to volunteer at the Charlotte house anytime.
Digi-Bridge
Invest in Charlotte kids’ futures by donating to Digi-Bridge, a locally-founded nonprofit that helps equip elementary and middle school-aged kids with the resources needed to learn STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math). Digi-Bridge operates under the belief that the country’s educational achievement gap is widened by the “digital divide”—the reality that affords only some students with the access to STEAM education, while schools with fewer resources can’t provide students with these tools. This digital divide puts some Charlotte children at a disadvantage from the start. Providing advocacy, consultancy, and courses to help bridge the digital gap in local communities, Digi-Bridge asks for monetary donations on #GivingTuesdayCLT, or you can sign up to volunteer at a future time.
VIA THE CHARLOTTE MAGAZINE
