Giving Tuesday: Some Great Places to Give You Might Not Know

Giving Tuesday is early this year. It falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which in 2021 is November 30. Giving Tuesday—or #givingtuesday-- is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.

For me every day would be a Giving Day if I could afford it. Sigh. I have some favorite places I give to that you probably haven’t heard of. So I’m sharing a few of them with you—maybe you will find just what you want to give to.

Kids Around the World

This wonderful ministry was started by a good friend, Denny Johnson, to build playgrounds for children in places devastated by poverty, war, weather, or any other reason. Serving children in itself makes it a great place to give. But there’s more.

As they go to locations to build a playground, they partner with churches, connecting them to local leaders, opening doors for ministry and contributing to community health.

Next they developed flannelgraph stories to use with Children’s Jesus Film showings, helping churches in remote areas to present the story of Jesus and begin discipleship with entire communities. That evolved into KIDStory, a creative approach with effective resources to reach children.

And now KATW also includes One Meal. In partnership with groups and volunteers from all over the U.S., they package and deliver nutritious meals to malnourished children, providing what they need for physical and mental development, thus beginning to break the cycle of poverty.

Some results: 950+ playgrounds built. 38.8 million meals shipped. 31+ thousand people trained. 85.3+ million children impacted.

Learn more at https://kidsaroundtheworld.com/.

Home for Refugees

“My friend Minda Schweizer lives in Southern California. As she saw many refugees coming into her state with no family and no place, her heart was filled with compassion. Of course, she prayed. And then she became part of the answer to her prayers: She began a ministry to help refugees work through the process and find help and home.

She describes their efforts this way: “Home for Refugees USA seeks to establish collaborative relationships between faith groups and community groups and refugees in order for refugees to achieve a sense of feeling at home in their new communities. We do this through training and coaching Community Sponsorship Teams, which we call Home Teams.

“Home For Refugees USA partners with Refugee Resettlement Agencies and community or academic organizations to resettle refugees. Our purpose is to offer support to help relieve the tragedy of displacement and loss for families and individuals having to leave a place they once called home and help them regain independent and self-sufficient living as they create their new home in the United States.”

Learn more: https://www.homeforrefugeesusa.org/

Leadership LINKS

I have been watching my friend Natasha Robinson grow her passion for mentoring and developing young women leaders into a beautiful, substantial ministry. I love how she mentors leaders who in turn mentor future leaders through creative, effective teaching, projects, and opportunities.

Here’s how Natasha guides her young women:

Our Purpose—Who We Are: Leadership LINKS exists to educate and equip servant leaders who are committed to using their skills and resources for the greater good of humanity.

Our Vision—Why We Exist: To connect with Purpose

Our Mission—What We Do: Offer leadership education that facilitates impactful living, character and spiritual development.

Our Core Values—What We Value: LINKS is integral and represents the strength of our organizational values: Love, Inspiration, Network, Knowledge, and Service

Love—God is love and He called us to love others as we love ourselves

Learn more: https://www.leadershiplinksinc.org/

National House of Hope

This is a very personal ministry to me. Our son, in the midst of a long prodigal journey, spent more than a year in the original House of Hope in Orlando. His time at HOH was foundational and transformational, though it took a while to see what he experienced there play out into his life spiritually, mentally, emotionally. Our family is grateful for this place.

The founder of House of Hope, Sara Trollinger, has become a dear friend.

Now National House of Hope guides a network of affiliated residential homes for troubled teens across the nation whose mission is to heal teens, restore families and transform communities.

Their heart verse is Malachai 4:6: He will turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers back to the children.

The prayer and intention is to train and equip counselors, youth leaders and parents raising teens with timely resources and teaching.

Learn more at https://www.nationalhouseofhope.org/.

What about you? Where might you want to give on Giving Tuesday?

C2021 Judy Douglass