This is the time of year that we all seem more generous with the holiday spirit around us. According to an article from USA Today, about 34 percent of all charitable giving is done in the last three months of the year. Of those donations, about 18 percent are given in December alone.
The idea of giving to those less fortunate than us is great, but we should be doing it yearlong instead of the last couple months of the calendar year.
Here at the Cheney Free Press, we started “A Year of Giving” in honor of this idea. Our hope was to raise money for local charities in the West Plains and donate to one every month. As of Nov. 20, we have raised $1,359. That money donated is great and every penny counts, but we think we could do even better next year.
We all have good intentions during this time of the year, but unfortunately we just don’t really stick with it throughout the rest of the time. And it seems it is not just in gift giving that we can give up, but in other things too. If we had a “stick with it” attitude throughout the country, we may be able to fix some things.
Another issue might be that some people or organizations go for an instant success attitude and they give up right away. When others don’t get positive results right away, they just move on to the next thing. But there are others that stick with it and have a great story come out of it. A good example of perseverance in giving to the community is Feed Cheney and Medical Lake.
Everyone has their own way of giving and there is honestly no wrong way to do it. But it seems to be that we don’t do a good job promoting what we do well enough. Sometimes with this idea of charity, some people just don’t like to promote it because that is not what the effort is all about. But for instances like here at the Cheney Free Press, we should be promoting our donation box so that we get the community more involved and in the end help more people with our giving.
For us, it was a big deal that we helped people and kids in Medical Lake, Cheney and Airway Heights throughout the entire year.
There is a need in the community 12 months of the year, not just during the holiday season. And the great news is that every penny donated helps anybody and somebody is going to benefit. Even if it is only one person, it is worth it.
So even though the Cheney Free Press didn’t hit the goal we wanted for our year of giving, we are not going to give up on the idea. It is good to set goals and then once we reach it, we will push it up.
We will continue the donation jar and we encourage people to also join in. Imagine if we could get two more businesses to join in, we could be making a substantial difference. This was our first year trying this idea and we know that everything that is donated is for a good cause and helps somebody in the long run.
So continue to be generous and give this time of the year, but also consider keeping it going year round.
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