Nov 29
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the launch of #GivingTuesday. It was built on a simple idea, which was to encourage people to do good through acts of kindness and generosity. It’s a day that I love and a day that almost all of my clients use to raise much-needed funding to accomplish their missions.
This year, I’ve been challenged and inspired by a dear friend and colleague to take this day of kindness and generostiy a step further by using my donations to support nonprofit organizations that pay a living wage, supporting their staff in the same way that they support their clients.
As a woman of faith, I believe that God in His holy dwelling is “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing;” (Psalms 68:5-6 NIV). I believe He does this through you and me, but only if we allow ourselves to be instruments in that Kingdom work. As such, the organizations that personally move me the most are the ones that serve children in need, the hungry, the poor, the lonely, and the imprisoned. And yet the people caring for our children and grandparents, our poor and our oppressed, our hungry and our loney – they aren’t earning a living wage. “Within our field, we haven’t done a very good job of taking care of our own people doing the work,” said Westenberger, who has been raising awareness about the need for nonprofit employers to support their employees beyond pay raises and title changes. “In the field of #youthwork and #socialservices, people in the field over a long period of time eventually MIRROR THE POPULATION THEY SERVE MORE THAN THEY RETAIN OVERALL HEALTH AND WELLNESS THEY HAD EARLY ON. 64 percent rated their financial wellness as fair, poor, or very poor.” (Read “More Than A Pay Raise…”)
Today, a person working at a very popular fast food chicken chain earns far more per hour than I did with four relevent college degrees in my first full-time nonprofit job for a youth-serving organization that I adore. I remember being promoted at that organization, and when it was announced at a staff meeting, the executive director “reassured “ that rest of the staff that I was being promoted without a raise. *insert eye roll. A little over a year later when I secured a director-level fundraising job at a very well-known youth mentoring organization, I was warned again and again after I returned from maternity leave when my first child was born that I needed to decided whether I would prioritize my family or my career. That organization also demanded more than 40 hours per week, regardless of how efficient you were in your work. I remember having the realization very quickly that if I stayed in that position, my children would be in need of the very services we were providing. That was unhealthy for me and unhealthy for my family. That is the very moment when I launched my own business.
Something has to give. So why don’t we begin with how and where we give our support on this #TransformationTuesday?
Please be sure to read this thoughtful blog by my friend Kristi. Let yourself be challenged to be more intentional with your giving this year and every year after.
Wishing peace and a spirit of gratitude for you and all those touched by you.
Kristy