Ways to Give Back This Thanksgiving Day
There are lots of organizations that offer volunteer opportunities in your area during the holiday season, a quick google search will point you in the right direction, or you could visit Feeding America and find locations near you to help, lastly, you could also create your own fundraising event within your own Thanksgiving Day celebrations!
Even if you're planning an annual fall event that isn't focused on fundraising or Thanksgiving charity, there are ways you can incorporate charitable giving into it. Here are some ideas:
Charge an admission fee and announce to potential attendees that you're donating a certain amount of dollars to a nonprofit organization for each ticket sold.
This not only helps your raise money for others it also helps you get more attendees and sell more tickets because when an event is given a purpose other than for people to gather and have a good time it motivates people to attend because they know they are helping a bigger cause. This gives you exposure for your event.
You can also give ticket buyers a chance to donate during checkout. A simple text box asking for a contribution could go a long way. Having preset options as well as an option where they can choose how much they would like to donate on their own.
Giving Tuesday Donations
Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is a day when nonprofit organizations encourage people to give to support causes, they care about. You can incorporate giving Tuesday into your Thanksgiving Day event by requesting donations from attendees that you will then donate for them on Giving Tuesday. Encourage your friends and family to participate in peer-to-peer fundraising.
For non-profits, it’s a great opportunity to reach out to current and past donors and ask them to consider making a donation again. Here are some ways to promote donations on Giving Tuesday:
• Send a letter to your donor base asking them to please consider donating again. Make it personal and tell them why it matters to you.
• Create a special page on your website that highlights your cause and asks for donations.
• Use social media to post images and videos about your cause and ask others to join you in supporting it.
• Ask local businesses to participate by offering discounts or freebies in exchange for donations.
• Offer a raffle or contest that gives away something meaningful to your supporters.
Thanksgiving Day Meals
Millions of Americans are gathering around their tables to celebrate the holiday with their families and loved ones. However, there are still hundreds of thousands of people across America that are not that fortunate and do not know where their next meal is coming from let alone able to cook a big meal with their loved ones.
Creating hot-to-go meals where you can walk around your city or a nearby one with people in need and pass out meals for them is fairly easy. Ask around friends and family to each make an extra dish of their choice to be donated while they are making it for their families.
Create a sign-up sheet with classic Thanksgiving Day side dishes on it for people to pick what they would like to bring. This way they have the ingredients and already were planning on making it so all they need to do is double or triple their recipe.
Donation Boxes
A donation box is one of those easy, simple ways to make a big difference during the holiday season. You don't even have to go out of your way to find one; there are plenty of options ready and waiting for you to use. Here are some great ideas for donation boxes to put up around your home, workplace, school, or neighborhood. The key to success is to get creative!
A donation box can be put anywhere, in a grocery store checkout line to remind people to maybe purchase two bags of potatoes this Thanksgiving, one to keep or one to donate. If you own a clothing store, bring people in and help others by giving a discount for anyone who brings in gently used clothes. Any business, school, community center, or person can have a donation box to help others.
Food Drive
A food drive is a widespread simple fundraising practice that works well. You can host a food drive with specific canned food items like corn or cranberry sauce for people to come pick up so they can mark it off their grocery list and incorporate it into their Thanksgiving feast. Mostly everyone has a can or two lying around in their pantry that they can bring in and donate, and if they don’t, many canned food items are affordable to buy at the grocery store.
Volunteer at a local shelter
Another option is to volunteer at a local shelter. Shelters will often need extra help and volunteers are needed.
You do not always need to donate goods; you can also donate your time. Of course, donating supplies for food drives and Thanksgiving Day meals is very important and helpful. There also needs to be people who are willing to work on collecting, cooking, and distributing all the goods that are being donated.
Especially if it is going to be a sit-down dinner where people come to a location to eat and not take it away, you need servers and people bussing tables as well as more staff to direct people and keep things running smoothly.
Host A Silent Auction
Something that can be set up fairly easily and shared seamlessly with social media posts and peer-to-peer fundraising is a virtual fundraiser.
Hosting an auction is always a fun process, you can ask around the community for items, gift cards, or experiences to be featured in the auction and auction them off on a silent online auction. Another great idea is to purchase Thanksgiving Day meal items that would be needed and put together gift baskets out of them. These baskets will be auctioned off and whoever wins each item then donates the bidding amount as well as the basket to people in need.
Virtual events can be a great way to reach as many people as possible because they are able to stay open for as long as you'd like giving people ample time to stop in and check out what they can bid on.
Volunteer at A Nursing Home
Many are not surrounded by family and friends during this holiday season. So, why not go make someone's day with your friends and family and make your family and friends theirs as well!?
We often overlook the elderly on these important holidays. Whether they are too sick to join their family at their homes, do not have anyone to celebrate with or their family is not in town. Whatever it may be no one should be alone on this day.
You do not need to bring anything or do much, just a companion would be greatly appreciated! It may also allow daily volunteers or employees to take a break as well to spend with their loved ones.
Conclusion
Remember how simple it is to support and help others. Although it is a time of celebration for many, for others it is not. We hope that these ideas put into perspective how easy it is to go the extra mile this holiday season and do something to give back. Fundraising 
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