💡 Philanthropy Friday: Supporting Community

Welcome to #PhilanthropyFriday!

This series represents a twice monthly conversation about philanthropy happening in the wild. This is a space to play, learn, celebrate, and peer into a small window of how you can support cool work happening in your community.

Today’s Topic: Supporting Community

There’s a lot of talk about how we vote with our money out there right now. I want to offer an additional layer to consider. While the world focuses on where not to spend your money, I hope you’ll consider where and how you can use your money to support your community directly. When I think about the word “philanthropy” it’s always in the broadest sense - the love of humanity. Here we are, at the perfect moment to love humanity and support each other with our time, talent, and resources.

Here are three simple ways you can support nonprofits and small businesses in your community that directly impact your family, friends and neighbors.

1. Visit their website and engage

   Trying not to spend but also want to support nonprofits and small business? Great! It’s free to visit a website, like a post, share a resource, or comment to help their content be seen and found by those who most need it. Your engagement is a vote of confidence to keep going.

2. Get involved

   If there’s work you really care about happening in your community, ask how you can help. I was a conference yesterday and one of the speakers mentioned how much she just loved to do data entry - can you imagine what a huge help she can be for so many organizations! What are those quirky things that you love to do and can help advance their work? Show up. Roll up your sleeves. Get involved.

3. Give unrestricted

   This won’t be the last time you hear me say this, but if you’re trying not to spend money on things but still looking for ways you can have impact, consider using your dollars for impact. It’s the opposite of a boycott - it’s an investment in your community. When you do, give unrestricted.