Lets Start a Movement for Small Nonprofit Day

American Express has sponsored “Small Business Saturday” to encourage people to shop in small businesses the Saturday after Thanksgiving for several years. If you haven’t taken advantage of it before – I have– American Express will give you a $25 statement credit for shopping at a small business that takes your American Express card – when you shop on Small Business Saturday. You have to register online first – but, gee, this is a pretty good offer.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving I have made it a practice to shop downtown in nearby Montclair at a qualified small business. And I always “double up” being a good citizen by making sure that at least one of my Christmas gifts is a fair trade product. Our family favorite past fair trade purchase was these beautiful napkins by Global Mamas. We use them all the time.


Anyway – I have a proposal – lets also make the Saturday after Thanksgiving – Small Nonprofit Day. The lion’s share of giving goes to large nonprofits – for many reasons. This is actually true of my personal giving too because I believe in the effectiveness of large organizations such as Oxfam America.

But I always allocate a portion of my giving to small, more local nonprofits. They may not have fancy websites, a great facebook presence and professional appeal letters. But they are an important part of the fabric of our communities – especially today.  There are more people than ever using food banks, libraries, attending church run programs, etc.

Just as the excellent American Express campaign promoting small business is having an impact on small business, I believe that having it also be Small Nonprofit Day can also be a boom for small, locally based, nonprofits. I hope American Express considers expanding the focus of the day and I hope you – members of the nonprofit community - will join me in spreading this idea.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and the whole holiday weekend. On Thursday I cook for 20 people, on Friday I recover and on Saturday I shop – locally. Also, I’m thinking about the nonprofits I will be donating too …. on Saturday.

My local favorite is PCCI where I am Board Secretary. PCCI provides after school tutoring and mentoring to children in Newark, NJ by committed volunteers creating a one on one bond with a child and an adult and bridging urban and suburban communities. Our combination of one on one paring of adult and child and being volunteer powered makes our service both personal and efficient. I invite you to support PCCI with me today.

Click here to make your donation to PCCI through Network for Good.  (Note:  I LOVE Network for Good.)

Check out Trade for Change for fair trade items …My Global Mamas napkins are the best and aren’t the little girls dresses the cutest ever.  If you go to Amazon and search on fair trade lots of choices come up too.