If your holiday spirit is more about giving than consuming, today is a perfect day to help local charities have a positive global impact.
The holidays are here, and your mailbox is about to get full with requests for donations.
Selecting the right nonprofits to support takes time and effort. I should know, as CEO of the Seattle International Foundation, we’ve given away more than $12 million to over 100 organizations working all around the globe. SIF is one of the ten largest philanthropic institutions for international giving in the Northwest, and we focus on Washington state-based organizations that are making a difference internationally.
Tailing Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the largest consumer holidays of the year, charitable initiatives like #GivingTuesday are encouraging us to give back individually and collectively, and reminding us it doesn’t take millions to have big impact.
To celebrate #GivingTuesday, I invite you to give where you live, but also make a difference globally.
Yes, it’s possible to do both. Seattle is home to dozens of great charities focused on serving the poor in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. No matter what you care most about — whether its girls’ education, protecting the environment, or access to clean water — there is a Seattle-area charity making it happen and helping thousands of people build safer, healthier more productive lives.
To help people connect with these worthy causes, SIF has teamed up with The Seattle Foundation to launch the 2014 Global Giving Guide. This guide features the work of 20 high-impact local charities working internationally to reduce poverty and improve lives. We carefully selected the nonprofits featured in the Guide by examining their mission, leadership, and impact.
By giving to these organizations, not only are we impacting lives around the world, we are strengthening our local economy and supporting our neighbors doing this important work.
On behalf of my colleagues in Seattle’s global development sector, I urge you to join us. Ending global poverty starts with you, right here in Seattle.
