We’ve always considered giving to be something you do every single day, not once a year. Give once a year? Eh. Give every Tuesday? That’s a habit worth repeating.

Besides—who goes around waiting until National Margarita Day to enjoy that sugary-tangy beverage of sheer delight? Absolutely no person. Ever. Especially not in Houston.

Look, the truth is, when you care about changing the way things are/giving back/making a difference/doing your part, there’s really no way to measure how much giving is enough. 

Last year I talked about how to get the most out of Giving Tuesday in a noisy world where everyone is asking for dollars. We talked about how charity: water shared out every challenge and victory throughout the year so that, by the time they got around to Giving Tuesday, they had something powerful to say about their collective impact. And, because of that, they were able to inspire new individuals to get in on a cause that’s clearly making waves. In other words, it was one more gentle push to convert donors who were cultivated year-round to consider becoming part of something big. 

This is all still VERY MUCH TRUE and we stand by it. 

But a lot can happen in just one year, especially when our digital frontier continues to have new horizons. Here’s something you should know: Facebook’s fundraising tool is making Giving Tuesday engagement so much more inventive.

Say what you will about this platform that gives us real anxiety about what our relatives may think of our politics and, hell, politics in general, but it’s leading the way when it comes to creating technologies that make giving easier—raising more than $125 million last year by partnering with Paypal to match up to $7 million—the most in history to have ever been raised on a social media platform.

While most of your annual fund might not come through Facebook on Giving Tuesday, 18 percent of donors worldwide have given through Facebook fundraising and that’s a significant enough number to pay attention to. If nothing else, it’s a way to make sure you’re staying connected with your advocates and getting visibility alongside your peers. 

To build on that, here are three quick things happening now that I think you should be taking note of:

#1 Facebook is adding donate stickers to the Stories feature (just like little sis Instagram already did).

If you’re out at an event and you’ve just live-streamed a powerful speech from someone in your community about the work you do, you can add a sticker to your upload and someone who is deeply moved while sitting on their couch eating popcorn can donate right then and there.

#2 Gamers can game for a cause—live on Facebook.

Maybe you’ve heard of professional video gamers like 27-year old Ninja Blevins who went from fast food to fast cash in the sum of $1 million per month. In any case, popular gamers can now decide to add the donate feature to their streams, leveling up their impact with a charity progress bar.

#3 There are more nonprofit features on the way—including one for volunteers.

Soon nonprofits will be able to raise money directly through Instagram with a business profile ‘Donate’ button. Facebook is also testing a feature that will let organizations actively find volunteers. This is excellent news for nonprofits who don’t always have the bandwidth to design their convenient digital tools for their advocate base.

Giving Tuesday is growing year after year, bringing in $389 million last year. It’s important to know about it, but not to assume it’s a magic ball that doesn’t require any work. 

Our argument still holds—Giving Tuesday should never be a one-day transaction. It’s a long-term relationship. A day-after-day, month-after-month rally cry that ensures people see the need that’s right in front of them. 

Because, in the noise of today, what’s right in front of you are humans—hungry for change.

A Digital Treatise on #NeverEverEverEndingGivingTuesday

Regular

 A question I should’ve asked when I was 4 and feeding turtles Doritos. 

Also, a question I didn’t know I should ask. 

This blog doesn’t tell you what turtles eat, but I can tell you it’s not the Cool Ranch flavor…. or the Nacho Cheese for that matter.

 This blog will give you an insight on how to know what you don’t know. 

“I don’t know what I don’t know.” Ugh. What an unsettling phrase.
 
 What don’t I know?
 Why don’t I know it?
 Should I know it?
 How do I know it?
 Where can I know it?
 Who else knows it? 
 
Whatever that “it” might be, I want to know. 

That phrase haunts my work life, my personal life, definitely my 4-year-old-life when I’m just now realizing Shelly could’ve died, and just life in general. And I’m sure I can’t be the only one. 

I found a modern day solution to finding that “it.”  

Search engines. You know, Google, Yahoo, Bing, that weird one with the duck logo that my parents swear is Google but it’s definitely not, my long-gone-grade-school-go-to Jeeves. 

Usually with search engines you type in a question that you want to find an answer to. However, what happens when you don't know what question to ask because you don't know what you know don't know. 

Here’s the good news. No need to have a question. Type in the first word of one such as “what, why, should, could, would, how, where, who.” Then let autocomplete do the work. Other people have figured out the question to ask to find out something you may or may not know. 

For example, I was typing in “what don’t I know,” my thumb slipped and added a space to make it “what do_.” Autocomplete then came in and filled it with “what do turtles eat?”

AH. There it was, the question. A question I’m glad that enough people have asked/are asking to make it the first one suggested.

I call it suggestions, Google calls it predictions. 

Here’s Google’s explanation as to why: “You’ll notice we call these autocomplete “predictions” rather than “suggestions,” and there’s a good reason for that. Autocomplete is designed to help people complete a search they were intending to do, not to suggest new types of searches to be performed.”

My little tip is the opposite of what Google predictions is intended for but give it a try. Chose from the list of questions followed by the word you typed in and let your curiosity guide you.

Autocomplete changes per search engine too, so try it out with all of them. You’ll be filled with fun facts, ready to be the next Jeopardy contestant and get a laugh out of the differences between search engine results. 
  
 

What Do Turtles Eat?