Today is Sumptin' Sunday. It's a day dedicated to gettin' up, gettin' out and just doin' sumptin'. I recommend wreath making, but sumptin' else could be leaf raking.
Look it up. SumpSunday.org, #SumptinSun.
Huh? Nothing? Wait a year. I'll get Gwyneth Paltrow on board. The Goop.
But it fits, right? Black Friday (which has fast become Black Wednesday-through-Friday), Sumptin' Sunday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday.
GIVING TUESDAY
After you've topped your credit limit on several cards over the long holiday weekend, give a little something more.
Do it for the library, that brick-and-mortar bazaar of giving ("lending"): "The aim of #GivingTuesday is to change how people think, talk and participate in the giving season and encourage them to give back." More information, to donate or volunteer -- you can volunteer at the library? Cool! -- can be found in the banner link at Cals.org.
I'd heard of Giving Tuesday before, but it sounds like an eye-roll holiday. Like Boss's Day, which is the day after Grouch Day during National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Now I think differently -- exactly what Central Arkansas Library System was hoping I'd do -- because almost all the nonprofit folks I reached say they're doing #GivingTuesday campaigns.
"This is the third year it's been observed, and it's slowly catching on in Arkansas," says Rebecca Brockman at Goodwill Industries. "It joins the holiday lineup of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday" -- how did I miss that one? -- "Cyber Monday ... . Of course, we rely on people giving/donating all year long."
"I wish it happened before Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday," says Kelly Ford at the Arkansas Arts Center, "when people still had some jingle in their pockets!"
This comes during the year-end appeal that nonprofits have pitched for as long as there have been tax deductions for charitable giving.
"Nonprofits have trained our stakeholders to expect a year-end appeal, and those come with a message of their own, something tied to the organization and its mission, not tied to a particular day," Ford says.
Not that the center isn't participating! Check out #becauseart (arkansasartscenter.org/becauseart).
UNselfie
The Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance was on board for the very first Giving Tuesday, back in 2012.
"The way it started," says Stephanie Meincke with the Alliance, "the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, looking at Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, they thought, wouldn't it be a great thing to have a day of giving? Bring attention to the holiday giving season?"
"The first year they did it, they shared it with everybody, and it just went viral, because it's basically a social media campaign. ... It's spread by social media primarily."
One of the things borne of this trend is the "#UNselfie."
Is that like a selfie without the self in it?
Oh, please, no! It's still a self-promoting social media post, only here the self is self-caught in the act of selflessness.
Like at a soup kitchen!
No, more like holding up a sign for a soup kitchen. Or any movement or good cause dear to them.
This fall, Haley Shelton and her schoolmates in the Nonprofit Leadership Studies Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock set up an UNselfie display at campuswide events and area nonprofits. They built a gaudy picture frame and had people stand inside it holding placards that announce some statistic, some cause or nonprofit -- some tidy message about what they're for. Almost always there's one or more social media search terms.
Ideally, that person posts the photo with the tag #UNselfieAR or #GivingTuesdayAR, so Shelton and the Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance can track how far the message infiltrates the poster's social network.
"That's the key," she says, "because our network" -- the Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance and the Nonprofit Leadership Studies Program -- "knows about Giving Tuesday. We want to encourage other people to reach into their networks, their personal friends and families, to promote the campaign."
Here's the best part -- Shelton says, in her experience, it's actually pretty hard to get people to take the UNselfie and post it. Lots of people want to make signs and announce causes close to their hearts but not be pictured; many others love the playful photograph -- there are little campy accessories subjects can try out -- but don't have a cause in mind.
"So, what looks like a bunch of people being kind of showy, like dressing up and 'Ooh, take my picture! Take my picture!' We had to talk a lot of these people into actually taking the picture."
On Tuesday, the alliance will stream a bunch of these photos on its website, ArkansasNonprofits.org.
I ask Meincke if Giving Tuesday shouldn't be greeted with a collective eye roll. Yeah, OK, that's sour, but privately, more than one local fundraiser told me Giving Tuesday is more big tent revival than effective pledge drive.
"That hasn't been the response we've gotten. ... It's not just about money, you know? Some folks are raising volunteers. Some are just raising awareness ... . I can imagine there will be eye rolls, but there will be other people who just really get it and just want to be a part of it."
HERE ARE A FEW
"The Arkansas Zoological Foundation will be sending out an email encouraging individuals to make a donation to help the Little Rock Zoo. Bet you didn't see that one coming! #obvious," Susan Altrui says.
"We've been promoting the global day of giving for weeks," says Stacey Bowers at the Thea Foundation, which recently reached $1.3 million en route to $2 million (Thea's given that much so far in scholarships to Arkansas high school seniors, EndowThea.org). "I think #GivingTuesday's super trendy name is a smart move on the organizer's part. ... #ALSIceBucketChallenge showed us the power in being trendy."
"We are regularly posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the lead-up to [Tuesday]," says Nancy Conley at the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
"Last year, it was one of our biggest flash give days of the year for online giving," says Tyler Lindsey at the Arkansas Foodbank.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Wildwood Park for the Arts and Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families also say they'll be pushing a social media campaign around #GivingTuesday.
High Profile on 11/30/2014