8 Ways To Give Back This Giving Tuesday

Just because the weather is getting nippier doesn't mean climate change isn't still very real and devastating. PODER is a San Francisco-based, Latinx immigrant and youth-led organization dedicated to racial justice through promoting affordable housing, public parks, and urban gardens. Donating to PODER helps fund leadership programs and directly supports community organizing for urban environmental justice. You can also donate to the Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, which is working to train community leaders to advocate for shaping urban land-use policies and help residents of Flint, Michigan, understand and push for their environmental health rights.

Can't donate money right now? Get educated on local climate justice issues to find out how you can be an advocate in your community.

One way to continue your Thanksgiving observance is to donate to the Radical Indigenous Mutual Aid Emergency Fund, which is distributed to different Indigenous-led mutual aid groups that support their local communities. (Mutual aid is a form of community care that involves a reciprocal exchange of resources and services.)

If donating isn't in the cards for you this year, learn more about how mutual aid is essential to community survival, and get involved in a group near you (a quick search of "your city + mutual aid" will help).

Sometimes, there's more to donate than just money. You can give the gifts of both time and canned goods to local food banks that need your support, especially as the holidays continue to roll in.

If food banks aren't your best choice this year, you can stick to helping reduce food insecurity from your phone or computer. Join the National Black Food And Justice Alliance in advocating for Black farmers with petitions like this one on Color of Change.

To help promote mental health education and advocacy, you can donate to the New York Coalition for Asian American Mental Health, which has continued to host events to promote mental health awareness and support (and for folks to enjoy themselves playing Among Us) during COVID-19. You can also donate to GirlTrek, a movement to promote the physical and mental health of Black women and girls. Want to focus on promoting youth mental health this holiday season? There's always The Trevor Project, which offers crisis intervention and support to LGBTQ+ youth in crisis.

It might seem like the only way to fight student debt financially is to pay for your own. But if you're able, you can participate in efforts to #BuyBackBlackDebt, which enables people to donate towards relieving Black students' debt. If you're not in a position to donate money, sign this Move On petition encouraging Congress to cancel student debt in light of the pandemic.

While the inequities facing people with disabilities across the U.S. are far from new occurrences, the pandemic has brought these issues front and center. The National Black Disability Coalition (NBDC) promotes disability justice through civil rights movement-inspired advocacy, and with unique opportunities like scholarships for Black high school students with disabilities. Donating to NBDC can help keep their virtual programming afloat, including anti-racism trainings for other disability justice organizations.

Looking to donate your time rather than your cash? Consider volunteering for Protest Access, which needs help with transcribing, captioning, and providing video support to anti-racism and Black Lives Matter media materials so they can be accessible to all folks.

The Immigrant Defense Project works year-round to help defend communities from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and support lawsuits that seek to protect immigrants from deportations. You can donate here to support justice in immigration policies.

You can also sign this American Civil Liberties Union petition encouraging Congress to divest from ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

To support community-based alternatives to policing, you can donate to JusticeLA, which combats the construction of new jails in LA and works to create alternatives to incarceration.

You can also go the non-monetary route of supporting efforts (both online and IRL) to pass the Breathe Act, which would divest federal funds from incarceration and policing. The Breathe Act would redirect resources into counseling and trauma-trained interventions instead of police in schools, domestic violence, or mental health crisis situations.