Today is December 1 and it’s a special day for charities across the globe –  GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to giving back.  It is the opening day of the giving season, following the shopping kick offs of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  For more information on GivingTuesday Canada check out givingtuesday.ca.

GivingTuesday is the perfect day to take the time to donate to a charity, fundraise for a cause, or even volunteer at a local organization that helps people in need.  In celebration of the day I wanted to take the time to share how I went from being a once yearly donor to conscientiously donating each month.

A number of years ago I made the decision to become more philanthropic.  And, as is typical in my family, in order to inspire myself I challenged others.  I told my family that on New Year’s Day 2013 I was going to attempt to donate to a different charity each month for a year – and I challenged them to do the same.  It was a fun year trying to decide who to donate to each month and with online donations it’s a really simple thing to do each month.  It’s been almost 4 years and both my sister-in-law and I are still donating to a different charity monthly.  Often we’ll compare notes and sometimes inspire others around us to donate that particular month with our banter.

The moral of the story is that even though we don’t give a lot each month, we are making a difference.  You never know who you’re going to inspire when you pledge to be involved in the charitable movement!  I have to say I feel pretty good when I make that donation each month – even better than when I made my Cyber Monday purchase.