Regret Wednesday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday don’t phase me. All the adverts roll off me like water droplets on a raincoat. But Giving Tuesday, well, that’s different.

There are so many good causes. I probably can only chose one or two. And I feel real sadness that I can’t do more. Giving Tuesday is painful for me and downright overwhelming. There gets to be a point when you have so many supplicants coming at you from all directions that it seems easier to close it all down and give nothing. Their long, thin arms reach out on Facebook and Twitter. In emails and through mass mailings.

There are too many needs. Nothing can ever fill that enormous void. Why even try?

I remember reading somewhere that people are more likely to give if the approach feels small and personalized. You must paint the need in such a way that the potential donor feels that their single donation has meaning, If the suffering and/or need feels too huge, people are more likely to feel that nothing they can do will help.

So they walk away.

I hope that all these very deserving non-profits do well on Giving Tuesday. But I wonder if the over-the-top pitches for donations has the potential to drive people away rather than producing the desired effect. Selling product is not the same as soliciting charitable donations. A different mindset and different emotions are at play. I’m not sure the concept translates.

There is Giving Tuesday, and then, for me, there is Regret Wednesday. Regret for all the good causes I can’t afford to support. Regret that casts a pall over the rest of the season. I just can’t help it. It is as though all those organizations are gathered outside my house, peering though the windows at my celebrations.

I don’t have room to let them all in. And I can’t get them out of my head.

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