Giving Tuesday

We have Black Friday looming when retailers offer great bargains to draw in shoppers and to launch the holiday gift buying season. On Monday Nov 26 we have Cyber Monday where the emphasis turns to the online shopping experience with retailers offering specials online to attract customers.

To help bring some balance, for the first time we have Giving Tuesday, a day to think about our civic responsibility to help charitable causes.  I would encourage you to take contemplate how you and your family are upholding your civic responsibilities to give to others through charitable causes. I have it on my calendar to do just that this Tuesday. I cut a few gifts that day, and review my charitable involvement. I hope you too will put the day on the calendar.

Besides making a few charitable gifts that day, here are just a few ideas for how you could participate in other ways on Giving Tuesday.  

·         CEOs sending to their employees an email encouraging them to make charitable gifts and volunteer in some way this holiday season.

·         A company announcing that it will match gifts their employees are making to charities this season.

·         Calling a charity to offer to volunteer in some way this holiday season and winter.

·         As a family deciding to send a gift to a charity in honor of someone the family wishes to honor.

·         As a family deciding to set aside a day each quarter to volunteer.

·         Set a day to go visit a charity or two to learn about what they are doing in your community.

·         As a family, count the money that is in your wallets and pockets at that moment and send 10% to a charity that the family selects.

·         A family meeting to discuss two or three causes that are important each member of the family and why they are important to that member.

·         Go on a treasure hunt, looking in your cupboards and closets, and on your shelves for items that you can box-up for delivery that week to a charity.

·         Go grocery shopping, not to buy food for your family, but to buy several days of groceries that you would buy for your family and then take those groceries to a charity.

·         Mark on the family calendar one day every quarter on which the family will plan a charitable gift and activity of some nature. And then keep the appointment to yourselves to follow-up.

·         Start an “empty the change” campaign for the family during which family members place into a charity jar at the end of each day all loose change they have in their wallets, purses and pockets, and once every two or three months send what is in the jar to a charity.

·         Skip a treat a week event in which each member of the family skips a treat/snack once a week and puts what they would have spent in to a jar with the proceeds going every few months to charity the family selects.

·         Taking the personal initiative to arrange for your place of business to do a collecting of food, or coats, or clothing. Most places do not do such activities because someone has not taken the initiative to organize the event.

 

These ideas may help trigger ideas of your own as to how you can participate in Giving Tuesday.

 

2008 vs. 1974

Comparing the current economic environment to the early 1930s is dubious. In the 30s there was no social security, no unemployment, no food stamps and no subsidized housing. Federal, state and local government spending was not as a significant factor in the GDP as today. The government’s portion of the GDP helps to bring a more stabilizing factor and unless there is an absolute collapse of the economy we will not see unemployment go above 30% as happened in the 30s.

Since the establishment of social security and unemployment, our definition point should be 1974, the worse economic year since WWII. In 1974 gas shortages, dramatically increasing gas prices and out of control inflation sent the economy into a tailspin. Long lines formed at gas stations and businesses suspended production or closed all together. What happened that year caused the economy and businesses to restructure, and it brought on the collapse of Chrysler and the Chrysler loan guarantees to save the company.

How does 2008 compare to 1974?

S&P – in 1974 a 33% decline, 2008 a 37% decline
Corporate profits – 1974, 16 decline, 2008 a 18% decline
GDP – 1974 a 0.5% decline, 2008 a 1.1% increase
Personal income – 1974 a 0.2% decline, 2008 a 0.8% decline
Unemployment at year end – 1974 was 7.2%, 2008 was 7.2%
Charitable giving – 1974 a 5.4 decline, 2008 a 5.7% decline

On the whole, we are in a slightly worse position as in 1974. As the events of 1974 started to recast various elements of the economy, so too will 2008.