#Giving Tuesday, or Making the Most of a Hashtag Holiday

So last week's roundup of activities included mention of #Giving Tuesday, an attempt to at least parallel (if not shift) Black Friday's launch of the spending season leading up to the December holidays with the start of a giving season.  Idealistically, the campaign hopes not only to encourage people to give to charities but also to have them crow about it in social media, spreading the word and momentum about the need to give to organizations, causes, people that we care about and which enrich our community and depend on our support.  It's a fine idea, even if one may question (see, e.g. this critique) whether this will ultimately increase giving over all, or change our national pattern of giving to charity (in which giving clumps up in the month before the end of the tax year anyway), or whether it will be heard above the ca-ching ca-ching of spending at the mall.

It is also an opportunity to begin or continue a conversation with your kids about why you give to charitable organizations, and which ones you care about, or even why you think giving to charity is the wrong thing to do to improve your community and what you advocate instead.  I mentioned last week that this page includes some activities for families to do, and I think there are some good ideas there whether or not you link them to this event.  A number of them involve ways of creating a regular habit of giving small amounts -- seasonally, monthly, marking holidays -- throughout the year, and using that plan to foster a family discussion about how and where to give.  I haven't tried this yet, but it seems to make sense as an approach (and is echoed by other sites discussing how to introduce kids to charitable giving).  Kids tend to like rituals and routines and they may become bigger sticklers for keeping with it than you are, if you're lucky.  It also makes sense to really think through what you are likely to maintain, because, as with a lot of things involving children, consistency matters.  So, if you are unlikely to convince your kids without a struggle to skip meals or forego small treats periodically and give the money you'd spend on the meal to a charity of their choosing then pick something else.

Obviously, you can participate in the day (or not) by writing a check to an organization or in support of a cause important to you, but it's harder to involve children in that.  If you want to do something tomorrow and haven't planned ahead, here are a few ideas that you can accomplish on a work day that can involve kids - these are ideas, not endorsements:

• Ask your kids to help you pick out items from the Occupy Sandy Registry on Amazon.  Send blankets or diapers or hand warmers.
• Contribute to the "Virtual Food Drive" organized by the Food Bank for New York City and DoSomething.org; you can browse the food categories and put items in your shopping cart and then charge them.  This allows the food bank to buy the food wholesale rather than collecting cans from individual donors.
• Give a cow, a plant, or some honeybees at Heifer International.
• Go buy some warm breakfast treats and bring them to the crossing guard near your school - not a charity exactly, but a reminder to thank people who help you in small ways every day.

Your ideas?  Are you buying into this hashtag holiday?  Why or why not?