I love all these days of giving that have been created in the past few years. More importantly, I find myself wondering what came from all the effort? Just because celebrities tweeted “unselfies” holding signs of causes they care about…was something actually accomplished more than a social media whirl and many a #hashtag ? I am happy to report that the answer is yes, there was much accomplished last #GivingTuesday and much giving done.

The numbers of giving were up 64 percent! That equates to non profits raising nearly $46 million dollars in donations, compared to last years $28 million,  according to early estimates from Indiana University’s Lily Family School of Philanthropy.

What I think is even more fantastic was the volunteering efforts that went along with the day. Last Tuesday, volunteers had clothing drives, tutoring projects and a wide range of activities aimed at helping local non-profits across the country. Almost 18,000 charity, corporate and civic partners registered to officially be a part of Giving Tuesday this year.

Sheila Herring from the Case Foundation was quoted as saying,”The biggest thing for us is that Giving Tuesday directly challenges Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where you have analysts lining up to look at the numbers as a gauge of the health of our economy. What if, as a nation, we focused that kind of attention on giving and we wanted that to be our identity?”

If a #hashtag and a celebrity “unselfie” is what it takes to get us thinking, acting and giving then #allforhashtages, #givewithmeaning, #makingadifference and of course my favorite #charitymatters.

Charity Matters.

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