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nonprofit organization

Why I regret #GivingTuesday 900 506 Michael Hemphill

Why I regret #GivingTuesday

Now that Giving Tuesday is over, let me share why I regret Giving Tuesday.

Yesterday I received at least 43 emails from 27 different nonprofit organizations asking for my support on #GivingTuesday. This doesn’t count all the texts, social media posts and so forth. 

Mind you, I don’t fault the nonprofits. They’re taking advantage of this one day — fabricated with good intentions, I’m sure, in 2012 — to inspire us to think beyond ourselves during the holiday hustle and donate to these organizations that bind us together when so many other institutions have failed.

But the unintended consequence of Giving Tuesday is a further relegation of nonprofits to subservient status. By hyping this one day for charitable giving, we suggest that the countless causes with which nonprofits grapple aren’t important the other 364 days.

In our for-profit world, nonprofits are already consigned to the lesser ranks inhabited by Oliver Twist nearly 200 years ago: “Please, sir, I want some … more?”

This scarcity mindset calls to mind the tiresome adage I’ve too often heard in nonprofit board meetings: “Nonprofits should operate more like a business.” 

Are there some best business practices that all organizations should incorporate? Sure. But let’s do without the condescension when we talk about nonprofits as if they’re puppies scrambling for scraps at the dinner table.

The motivation of business is to make money … and there’s no money to be made in housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, spaying stray cats and dogs, teaching literacy to immigrants and native-born Americans, showing children how to dance and sing, preserving African-American history, awarding scholarships for kids to afford college, creating art in low-income neighborhoods or helping the frightened single mom care for her baby — just some of the nonprofit missions we’ve highlighted and helped on our TV show BUZZ. 

As I share in the opening of every episode: “their profit comes not in the thing they sell, but the good they do.”

This goodness deserves celebration year round, not just 1/365th of the year. 

If we as a society say that these missions are important, then let’s resolve in 2025 to celebrate Giving Tuesday each week, not just the first one of December. 

That nonprofit we professed such care about yesterday will be working just as tirelessly, just as heartfully, those Tuesdays as well.

Always buzzing,
Michael Hemphill
BUZZ creator

BUZZ + Christiansburg Institute Watch Party Fundraiser 940 470 Michael Hemphill

BUZZ + Christiansburg Institute Watch Party Fundraiser

Join us for a pop-up museum exhibit, documentary screening, and panel discussion curated by Christiansburg Institute and Buzz4Good.

For 100 years, the Christiansburg Institute stood as one of the finest schools for Black Africans in Virginia. Founded in 1866 just a year after the Civil War put an end to slavery, Christiansburg Institute became a testament to African-American self-preservation, educating thousands of students on its 185-acre campus. Education giants such as Booker T. Washington served as superintendent.

But in 1966 school integration finally took hold in Virginia … and Christiansburg Institute’s legacy was quite literally whitewashed away. Its academic buildings were shuttered. Its students scattered to previously whites-only schools. Its land subdivided and sold off. Today all that’s left is one abandoned building on four acres.

But there’s a group of passionate people dedicated to preserving its history … and creating a catalyst for community conversations, racial justice and change.

Election 2020 Message from BUZZ4Good 1024 576 Michael Hemphill

Election 2020 Message from BUZZ4Good

“It’s cliche by now to call 2020 unprecedented … but the year has certainly offered a litany of struggles. At the same time, I look back and see that this year has also brought about BUZZ, my TV show that highlights the great work nonprofits do in our community … and the marketing pros who help them do more and better.

“Now here in 2020 we are coming up on Election Day. So much energy and resources have been poured into making sure people cast their vote by Nov. 3. And while that’s certainly important, there’s so much more that needs to be done in our country … hard work for which November 3 is just the beginning. It’s like thinking that the effort to make a good and long-lasting marriage ends on your wedding day.

“No, regardless of who wins this year’s election, there is substantial work that needs to be done by all of us to really make America great. I’ve said it frequently on BUZZ4Good’s TV show, podcast and social media, our political and governmental institutions seem to be failing, but our nonprofit organizations have increasingly stepped up to address the real issues in our communities: homelessness, racial injustice, the environment, health and income disparities, art and culture.

“As dark as this year has been, I’m asking this of everyone tuning in here … all the passion and energy and money that you’ve expended on our current politics … that after Election Day you devote the same amount and more to our country’s people through our nonprofit organizations. Together let’s all aspire to be a buzz4good in our communities.”