Why You Should Support Nonprofits This Year
Why You Should Support Nonprofits This Year
Americans are well-known for the frenzied shopping and spending many of us do each winter in the name of holiday giving, both for our inner circles and for ourselves. Some choose to balance out commercial excesses with donations to charities and nonprofit organizations. Although Giving Tuesday has been a popular day to do this since 2012, your gift can make a major impact throughout the winter holidays and other times of year. Here’s why supporting a nonprofit you care about is one of the best ways to give back this holiday season.
Reasons To Donate to Nonprofits in General
Most people consider altruism to be the main nonprofit case for support, but in fact there is a surprising variety of positive outcomes that can result from donations, particularly if you give on a monthly basis. Here are just a few reasons why your gift to nonprofits is ultimately more than the sum of its parts:
Accomplish Something Positive in Difficult Times
In recent years, Americans everywhere have been through tough times to outright trauma caused by the pandemic, deep political division, social injustice, hate-based violence, record inflation, and more. When you give to nonprofits, you empower them to accomplish goals that instead bring communities closer together and support vulnerable populations.
Become More Informed and a Better Learner
The simple process of learning about a nonprofit and the cause it serves can help you gain a better understanding of the forces at work in the world and how they intersect—for better or for worse. Learning about the problems an organization works to address can open your mind to learning about related missions, policies, perspectives, and lifestyle choices that can make the world a better place. In short, the simple act of giving can help you to become a better analytical and big-picture thinker.
Feel Better (and Become Healthier)
In addition to the feel-good hormones that are released in your brain when you do something for the good of others, giving to charities and nonprofits has also been proven to offer the following health benefits:
Lowered blood pressure
Reduced symptoms of depression
Increased self-esteem
Decreased stress
Longer lifespan
Greater levels of happiness and satisfaction
Set a Good Example for Children and Inspire Others
If your children see that you make a point of supporting charities and nonprofits each year, they’ll be more likely to do so when they grow up as well. Your giving can encourage them to become passionate about various causes and teach them how to make a positive difference in the world. Philanthropic interests also make great conversation starters with other adults, who may be similarly moved to make their lives more meaningful through nonprofit support.
Reasons To Give to Local Nonprofits
Although supporting any nonprofit, near or far, has numerous benefits, giving locally has some unique ones. Here’s what you’ll gain from engaging in philanthropy right where you live.
Help Your Own Community
When you give to a nonprofit in your own town or city, you’ll get the satisfaction of knowing you’ve helped your own people (geographically speaking). You’ll know exactly where and how your donation is being used and may well get to see the fruits of what it makes possible. Giving where you live can also help you feel more connected to the people and places near you, and major fundraising events can help to bring communities closer together as they work for a common good.
Support Your Local Economy
When you make donations locally, you’re also supporting your own microeconomy in a number of ways. In the most direct sense, you’re helping nonprofits to employ existing and even new workers, which means you’re contributing to job stability and job creation. In turn, those workers buy the goods and services that help local businesses thrive. When you support humanitarian organizations, you may additionally be helping vulnerable groups to become more financially stable and productive in your community.
Get To Know Your “Neighbors”
Particularly if you attend a fundraiser in person, or if you support an organization that provides a common gathering place (such as a community center, park, or theater), you’ll have the chance to interact with beneficiaries and your “neighbors” face to face. This is especially valuable after two years of pandemic lockdowns and increasing political tensions. Local philanthropy provides opportunities to socialize and be reminded that our community members are complex humans, not just health risks or ideological symbols.
Support the Mosaic Theater Company This Year
The Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, DC produces bold, culturally diverse theater that illuminates critical issues, elevates fresh voices, and sparks connections among communities throughout our region and beyond amid the most important events of our times.
Dedicated to making our theater an inclusive model of diversity at every stratum, on stage and off, Mosaic invests in the new as we keep abreast of our changing and challenging times. We do this to ensure that our theater is a responsive gathering space, all the while nurturing and producing art of the highest order.
To support Mosaic’s accessibility efforts and partner with us in cultivating exciting new work and creating productions which foster intercultural conversation, please consider making a donation.
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