The event was started the New York-based Belfer for Center for Innovation & Social Impact, with the idea of not just to buy, but also to contribute.
This year Giving Tuesday is Nov. 29.
Last year, more than 700,000 people from 70 countries participated in the program and raised $116 million.
Some of the Butler County agencies participating this year include the Middletown Community Foundation, Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), St. John XXIII Catholic Elementary, Bishop Fenwick Catholic High School, Supports to Encourage Low-income Families (SELF), Butler County United Way, Community First Solutions, PARACHUTE: Special Advocates For Children of Butler County and Sojourner Services, according to the website.
T. Duane Gordon, executive director of the MCF, said the organization was looking for “innovative ways” to raise money for its Ready! campaign so they decided to participate in Giving Tuesday for the first time. He hasn’t set a financial goal, but hopes residents donate to area organizations.
“We need to move away from commercialization, and get back to those values, families, community and doing good around the holidays,” said Gordon, who plans to participate in Giving Tuesday next year and encourage other organizations to join. “We’ll see how it goes.”
He said the MCF has raised more than $3 million of its $5 million goal that will fund the program for five years. The money will be used to hopefully improve the preparedness of children entering kindergarten. Research has shown that children who enter kindergarten not ready are twice as likely to be placed in special education, 30 percent more likely to not go to college, and 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime, become a teen parent, drop out of school, face chronic unemployment, or spend a lifetime in poverty.
The campaign benefits children in Middletown, Edgewood, Franklin, Madison and Monroe school districts, Gorrdon said.
He said the financial success has allowed Ready! to start phasing in several projects. The group hired a coordinator, who is a contract employee at United Way’s Middletown office, who is responsible for three areas: Administering the grants and collecting data on impact and performance; developing over the next several months and implementing next year a public education campaign to explain the importance of early development and the impact that has on education; and developing over the next several months and implementing next year the Bob Flagel Preschool Scholarship program.
The campaign has also added in recent weeks elementary school social workers in Edgewood and Middletown school districts, renewed the kindergarten orientation program throughout all five districts, added several new offerings at the Parent Resource Center, including dedicated speech therapy in partnership with Abilities First and Spanish language services; and a new home visiting social worker was hired by the Butler County Educational Service Center to assist with the waiting list facing Middletown-area families needing that help.
At its recent annual awards night, the foundation presented a check for $75,000 check to pay for that social worker to Suzanne Prescott from the BCESC.
“We’re changing some kids’ lives,” Gordon said.
Reach Out Lakota will be working with its donors to cultivate donations for the group’s Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty Endowment Fund (WCLCF) on Giving Tuesday.
“These donations will help us build for the future and, in the mean time, help WCLCF further their amazing impact and support for the WCL community. Our goal at Reach Out Lakota is to grow our Endowment Fund to $20,000 next Tuesday,” J. Peyton Gravely of the WCLCF said.
Unfortunately, the giving season is also a time when scammers use people’s charitable inclinations to collect money for themselves. Many use the guise of a previously-made pledge that a victim is then pressured into settling - even though there was no promise to donate made in the first place according to Sandra Guile of the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau.
“These practices subsequently make donors hesitant to give to legitimate organizations when approached for a contribution,” Guile told the Journal-News. “The best course of action when pressured for a donation is to simply refuse. If the charity is legitimate, they will welcome a donation from you after you’ve done your research and feel more comfortable supporting their cause.”
She added that Giving Tuesday "is a great time to support a local cause you trust," and advised visiting givingtuesday.org to learn more about how you can contribute and checking give.org to find out how your preferred charity uses your gift.
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