GivingTuesday 2021: Ways To Help Causes In McLean

MCLEAN, VA — After a dayslong stretch of shopping and checking holiday gifts off your list, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving offers a moment to pause. It’s a day set aside for McLean residents to focus on gratitude and giving back.

GivingTuesday, observed this year on Nov. 30, is a global movement to inspire hundreds of millions of people to not only give, but to recognize and celebrate the generosity of others.

GivingTuesday and its mission also falls effortlessly in with "30 Days Of Gratitude," a Patch series exploring the intentionality of gratitude and how it enriches our lives.

Living with gratitude goes beyond merely being thankful. It doesn't mean pretending bad things don't happen, but rather savoring the goodness, according to experts on the topic, including Robert Emmons, a University of California - Davis psychology professor who is known as the "father of gratitude."

In short, living with gratitude is "an affirmation of goodness" and a recognition of the good in the world as the source of our individual gifts, benefits and blessings.

Gratitude is not singularly focused, Emmons said in a YouTube video for the Greater Good Science Center, but rather recognizes that the sources of goodness are other people who "gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives."

Supporting A Local Organization

While GivingTuesday has gained momentum worldwide, there are plenty of organizations and causes to support right here in McLean.

Here are a few organizations you can support this GivingTuesday:

• McLean Community Foundation: This foundation gives support to projects and causes in greater McLean
• SHARE of McLean: This nonprofit provides a food bank and other services for residents in need
• McLean Volunteer Fire Department: Volunteers adds staffing support for Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Station 1
• McLean Project for the Arts: This nonprofit organizes art exhibitions, art courses, and the annual MPAartfest
• Shepherd's Center of McLean-Arlington-Falls Church: This nonprofit helps seniors live independently in Northern Virginia

You can find suggestions of organizations to support from Great Nonprofits.

How You Can Give

You can participate in a number of ways on GivingTuesday, according to the movement’s website. Here are a few ideas:

Give time: Volunteer virtually from your home. Give your voice to help raise awareness for a local issue, lend your talents to a nonprofit who needs your expertise, or take an hour to call a senior who may be lonely. See more opportunities online.

Give support: GivingTuesday is locally led in more than 240 U.S. communities, networks and coalitions. Find organizations to support through your local GivingTuesday community movement.

Give gratitude: Thank your postal carrier, delivery driver and other essential workers. Write thank-you cards, post on social media, and share your appreciation for the people and organizations who are helping your community.

What Is GivingTuesday?

GivingTuesday was created in New York City in 2012 with a simple goal: to encourage people to do good. Over the past nine years, the idea has grown into the global movement it is today.

The goal of GivingTuesday is “radical generosity” — the concept that the suffering of others should be as intolerable to us as our own suffering, according to the movement’s website.

And people are eager to give. Recent data shows that people are highly motivated to give in 2021 and are giving more in response to needs in their community and to causes they care about.

• Related: Opera Singer ‘Died’ But Lives On As Pianist: 30 Days Of Gratitude

A broad range of people and organizations participate in GivingTuesday, including families, nonprofits, schools, religious organizations, small businesses and corporations.

“Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts,” GivingTuesday’s website reads, “and everyone has something to give.”