Tuesday was the kick off to the season of giving, coined the name giving Tuesday, it was a globally recognized day to give back to local nonprofit organizations who then in return are able to give back to the community.
Whether its a food bank, shelter or any other organization thats making a difference, your donations matter.
"This is actually the kick of to our giving season, were asking our supporters to shine a light for survivors and to donate," siad Jennifer Adams, the CEO of Lumina Alliance.
Lumina alliance is a non profit that supports sexual assault and domestic violence survivors.
With the money they receive as donations from the holiday season they are able to provide survivors with tons of different resources at their facility, including therapy.
For a lot of these nonprofits, the holiday season is the time where they recieve the most of the years donations.
"We rely on what comes in so much, about two thirds of our budget comes in during this giving time of year so giving Tuesday is just a perfect way to get us started," explained Wendy Lewis, CEO of ECHO.
At ECHO the holidays are huge, it's the time of year where things get cold and housing options make a big difference.
The community has been so supportive they’ve recently expanded, making this year even more important.
"The donations form today are more meaningful than ever in this past year we've had tremendous amount of growth and opened two new facilities so the funds raised today are really to sustain the new work that were doing," said Lewis.
Echo shelter has set a goal of 10,000 dollars for this giving Tuesday and are on track to meet it, for the holiday season they have a goal of 250,000 and say the community never disappoints.
It’s a similar picture over at the SLO Food Bank where they’ve had community members pledge to match up to a certain amount.
An anonymous group of hunger heroes pledged to match up to 3,500 dollars which was met by 9:00 a.m., and another group pledged to match up to 20,000 and they’re right on track for that too.
"This is a global event and it happens every year, so a lot of people are primed and ready to give on giving Tuesday, there’s some satisfaction with that, so a lot of love were just so thankful because it allows us to create a better experience for those experiencing hunger," explained Branna Still, the Development Director for SLO food bank.
