Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement that takes place on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving every year.
Jerleen Bryant, the CEO of the Nevada Humane Society, tells us, "Giving Tuesday is incredibly important to us because we are a private nonprofit. 85% of our funding comes from the generosity of our community."
But they aren't the only organization that is spreading the word about the day of giving back during the holidays.
The Food Bank of Northern Nevada and PBS Reno are also on board.
Jocelyn Lantrip, the director of marketing for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, says, "We'd love it if you want to help the Food Bank combat child hunger in our community, but it's great if you give to anybody. It's really about everyone participating and giving back on this one day."
Kurt Mische, the president and CEO of PBS Reno, tells us, "Giving Tuesday is a nice offset. You know, we had Black Friday, where everybody shops for themselves, and it's very self-focused, and that's fine. But now Giving Tuesday is a time for you to think out beyond yourself and to look around at the organizations that really make a difference, really make an impact."
Lantrip says that Giving Tuesday is important to the Food Bank because they are so busy during the holiday season, keeping the community fed.
She says the organization and families they help were also heavily impacted by the shutdown.
"It's really impactful for child hunger," she said. "We've seen a lot of high numbers in our community of people needing help, so this is a perfect time to not only shine the light on the issue of hunger in our community, but really focus on kids."
And Mische reminds us all, "Well, it's just very, very important. And these days and these times, for all of us to do what we can't, everybody doesn't have the ability to write a check with a lot of zeros after the number. But whatever anyone can do is what they can do. It doesn't matter the size of the gift. What matters is the amount of commitment and the amount of love in the gift that people give.
With the hard times we've seen, some households may have trouble providing for their pets, and the Nevada Humane Society wants to help as much as possible.
Bryant explains, "We take in about 10,000 animals a year, and we provide medical support, behavior support, interventions, and nose-to-tail care, and we can't do it without the generosity of our community."
They also accept more than monetary donations.
"As far as donations of items or dog or cat food for our pet pantry, those can be brought in in person any day of the week, seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m."
Each organization has a special way it is helping donations reach even further.
Bryant tells us that for Giving Tuesday, they have a generous donor who is matching up to $50,000. So, any donations that come in on Tuesday up until midnight can be doubled. You can donate online by clicking the link here.
She also encourages people to come visit the shelters, too, saying, "We are here for the community. Again, we're open seven days a week. We have many dogs and cats that would love for you to pop in and say hi. We have an incredible team here that's happy to answer any questions. Even if adoption isn't the right time for you right now, but you'd still like to come in, interact with the animals, and say hi, we would love that."
The Food Bank is also getting a triple match on donations through a collaboration to help make a larger impact. This way, every dollar will equal nine meals instead of three. You can donate to them by clicking the link here.
Mische explains, "We have a special promotion. We call it Better Together. Because all of us are better together than any one of us individually. We have a partner every year, a different not-for-profit partner. This year, it is the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization."
He tells us that if they generate 200 gifts and/or 200 new or renewing members to PBS, then Reno Whittier Trust will donate $10,000 to the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and another $10,000 to PBS Reno. You can donate to them by clicking the link here.
