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Math Problem or Word Problem?



Giving Tuesday is one of those days when I am so upset that I don’t have enough money to give that I just shut down. 

I wrestle with how much money I can safely donate while still having enough to meet personal needs. As you might imagine, this struggle is not methodical nor scientific. I do not have lists nor analyses to inform my charitable giving. I have a gut feeling about how much I can afford to give and I try to work with that.

If you read this blog with any regularity you are aware of the causes I support and the nonprofits I admire. I try to give when I can and use my social capital to promote them when I can’t give an actual monetary donation. They tend to fall (roughly) into two categories: responding to concerning needs, and pursuing important goals.

This year I truly feel a whole new category of need rising up out of the usual candidates on Giving Tuesday: those who are responding to catastrophic crises mostly caused by the current administration in Washington. For example, this would include organizations like the World Central Kitchen and Médecins Sans Frontières (internationally) and Luminus and Columbia Community Care (locally). 

So now there are more options to consider on a day when very few of us have the kind of funds to address them all. That’s a math problem, I guess. But it comes infused with a whole lot of values decisions, doesn’t it? 

Here’s your word problem:

Beth has xxxx dollars available to donate on Giving Tuesday. Should she use it in one lump sum to one organization to have the most impact, or should she divide it and give a small amount to each of the multiple organizations she believes in? 

A bonus essay question: what happens to charitable giving when community members are forced to engage in this kind of triage? When we become focused on addressing just the most basic survival issues what becomes of initiatives to support access to the arts, intellectual freedom, caring for the natural world?These are all vitally important yet are now head-to-head with impending starvation and the growing menace of neighbors being grabbed off the streets.

Hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread, but give us roses.

- - Bread and Roses, James Oppenheim and Mimi Farina 

But: how?

I’m interested in your responses. I have a feeling that there’s no one perfect answer. If you have a particular local cause you’d like to boost, feel free to add it in the Comments.


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  1. Julia A. McCreadyDecember 2, 2025 at 4:06 AM

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