Today is “Giving Tuesday,” a relatively new day when charities promote end of year or holiday donations. This day came in response to Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. With all the focus on shopping, charities felt the need to remind the public to give during the holiday season and spend just a little bit on helping people in need as well as supporting the voluntary sector overall. I have spent most of my career working with nonprofits and I know they are such an important part of our improving the quality of life in our communities. Today, I want to mention several that I have worked with.
So many local organizations are working in local communities to provide human services, including senior services. For example, I am doing some consulting work for Community Caregivers (www.communitycaregivers.org) based in Albany County. This is a real grassroots group of “neighbors helping neighbors,” founded in 1993 to help persons, especially elders, remain living independently in the community. Community Caregivers has a volunteer force in the hundreds serving local residents mostly by providing transportation and friendly visiting and other services. There are other groups in our region and around the state like Colonie Senior Services, Carelinks in Saratoga County, Rhinebeck at Home, Mercy Care for the Adirondacks- to name a few – doing similar work and I urge you to support them.
I am also working with Community Works of New York State (www.communityworksnys.org) which I helped to get off the ground in 1993. This federation of non profit advocacy organizations participates in payroll deduction charitable giving campaigns like the State Employees Federated Appeal (SEFA) and other local employer campaigns. New members of this group include Senior Services of Albany but the federation includes organizations providing advocacy and services on housing, nutrition and other concerns for all ages.
At the state level, there are important advocacy organizations like New York Statewide Senior Action Council (www.nysenior.org) which I led for fourteen years. Statewide has played a major role for over forty years in leading advocacy for elders on social, health and economic issues including patients rights, prescription drug coverage and protecting Medicare and Social Security.
You can give to any of these groups by going to their websites or going to the website for Network for Good, (www.networkforgood.org) a national website listing tax exempt charities.
