[Expanded from my Facebook Post from Tuesday, December 2 – also known suddenly by the internet as Giving Tuesday]

I’ve had a lot of conversations recently about giving and about being of service and how, within a couple generations, a lot of people (including myself) have ceased to weave charity into the fabric of their existence. A lot of people my parents’ age sure seemed to have it down. At the end of the year, my parents would sit at their desks with their checkbooks out, and methodically give to all the charities that sent them letters. Not only that, but volunteering in a very community minded way was a given, not an option.

I certainly know people who are younger than my parents who too have it down and also sit down at the end of the year with their laptops and credit cards. Who volunteer their time with no other intention but to do what they can. Not to post a video on Facebook, not to show the world their selflessness, they JUST DO.

Personally, it took me a long time to figure it out and to fit it into my life — going from a lower middle class to a middle middle class citizen helped a lot; realizing that giving back (both by providing service and financially) improves my life on so many levels; and focusing on a few specific causes helped me not feel overwhelmed.

My humility falls somewhere between my non-Facebooking selfless friends, and the icebucket-dumping knuckleheads that infested my timeline last summer. I try to use social networking to entice and excite people into giving, themselves. And I am not shy about directing people to the causes I personally believe in. See below!

Take a leap and try directing your hard-earned simoleans to a worthy cause. Volunteer your precious time! Raise some awareness! It stings a little, but you are helping in a very real sense.

If you can’t think of causes to help, well, here you go!

• Straight Up – a youth development organization serving 12-25 year olds in my county, raising awareness and creating change around such issues as alcohol, drugs and tobacco use. Someone you know and love is Employee #2 for this org! We had to take a budget cut hit last year and we are finding ourselves pay for way too many work items out of our own pockets.
• Ventura Improv Company – a 25-year-old non-profit theatre in Ventura, CA, offering improv shows and classes for all ages. Someone you know and love has been volunteering for and performing with this group since 1996! We struggle, how we do struggle. If you know small theatres, our being around for a quarter century is a miracle, but we need a lot more to keep on for another 25 years.
• WFMU – the very best radio station in the entire universe. Someone you know and love has been listening for years, married two of the DJs to each other, made out with another DJ in the past, and would FALL APART if this non-profit free-form station goes under.