Support Nonprofits With Your Own #DaysofGiving

At SA2020 we live in the middle – the squishy center that allows us to research and analyze and evaluate and question. We know, as an organization that specializes in community change and incremental progress, that there is generally no one right answer to most of our community challenges. So…what I’m about to write goes against this principle, and because it’s the season of giving, I hope you’ll give me some wiggle room. When it comes to our community’s challenges, nonprofit organizations are creators of solutions. The work they do makes our community better and creates opportunities. Nonprofit organizations are important to the San Antonio and Bexar County ecosystem. Boom. I said it. As such, SA2020 partners with 145 local organizations to drive progress on our community’s collective vision. You can see an entire list of them here. I promise that there is at least one organization that will inspire you to act. You merely select the SA2020 Cause Area you are most passionate about, then filter the organizations by said Cause Area and do a little research to find the organization that is moving the needle where you want to see it moved. But it doesn’t stop at the research. What we want you to do is give your time, talent, energy, and money to said organization. SA2020 launched our #SA2020DaysofGiving during this giving season. It was a way for us to give back to the organizations that give so much to our community. We sent out a request to our partners to give us some projects that they needed help completing. And they did. We cleaned out a garage, organized file boxes, tutored some of the most amazing students, packed giant boxes of food, helped prepare for an Artisans Market, hung lights and decorated, sorted gifts for children, prepared inventory for the Nutcracker boutique, and even did some gardening. The intent was to try to take something off the ever-growing list of tasks with which nonprofit staff members are all too familiar. It was also a way for us to see how our partners do their day-to-day work. It’s the holiday season - the season when everyone is ready to give back. Maybe your presents this year include a donation to one of your favorite local organizations. Maybe your holiday tradition can include volunteering as a family. Collectively we spent sixty hours over nine days doing projects that our partners said were important to the work they do in our community. And we could spend twenty more hours doing more. So…if you’ve already got plans this holiday season, I’ll let you in on a not-so-well-kept secret: nonprofits need you year round. In fact, we’ve already committed to doing #SA2020DaysofGiving throughout the year. Maybe 2017 is the year you resolve to get more involved. That was not even supposed to be a motto, but it totally can be: resolve to get involved. Hope to see you around the community!