Hey, everybody, I'm Audie Cornish, and this is the Assignment. And starting this week, we're going to basically enter that time of year that's about gathering with loved ones, eating good food, being grateful for all of it and, like, honestly, buying stuff. It seems like Black Friday starts earlier, lasts longer than ever. But you know, it's still just one day? Giving Tuesday, which says something about whether we're really making an effort to be charitable. At the same time, everybody seems to be stretched thin. So nearly a quarter of American households are living paycheck to paycheck. Many of them are asking for help on social media.

I hate having to come on here and ask for money or anything like that, but if y'all could just like the video, comment, if yall could share it. I mean, even if you would like to send me something, anything would count. I just need some help right now.

So with so much need obviously it can feel overwhelming to figure out how best to help. So today I'm talking with Sara Herschander, who covers philanthropy for Vox's Future Perfect, about how and why to put the giving back in Thanksgiving. Stay with us. Sarah, welcome to the Assignment.

Thank you. So happy to be here.

You know, I should start a different way, which is, Sara, do you believe Christmas decorations should be out before Thanksgiving or after?

That is a great question.

I'll be judging you the whole rest of the conversation around this.

I mean, I've been seeing them since Halloween, which I find a little bit too much, so I'm going to say after. I think I'm definitely an after person. Love the lights, but like...

Give us a minute.

Yeah, we can wait for the season. Makes it more special.

So we were talking recently about how people are feeling about this economy. And there were all of these social media posts where people were like, these grocery prices are too high. My hummus costs too much. This bell pepper is too expensive. There are a lot of people in need. And then we saw the CEO of GoFundMe on CNN talking about how people were using it for essentials. So I think between that and kind of some of the tenor of the news stories, I have this feeling of like, more people than ever need some kind of help. And if I'm in a position to help, how do I? Because honestly, now it's just kind of overwhelming. So that's why I wanted to talk to you. Is this something you have heard, you are feeling? Like, what does this sound like from the world of philanthropy?

Yes, both and. I talked to someone recently who described it as like, it feels like everything's on fire and I don't know where to point my hose. Like that resonates with me personally. I mean, I'm on social media, like I do the doom scroll. And like a lot of the time now, these doom scrolls also involve a lot of fundraisers, GoFundMes for like essential stuff. So somebody who can't afford their rent, who can't afford a really high medical bill, or maybe they care a lot about you know, a crisis that's happening around the world, and they're trying to fundraise for that. So I think what's interested me in this topic is sort of this idea of like, people are doom scrolling and they are sort of getting desensitized to all of this and that's a really big problem. That's like the opposite of what we want to do. So I've been trying to work on some pieces that help people sort through the chaos, sort through all of their feelings about this and kind of feel empowered to help. Like it's a fun thing. Giving is a cool, fun thing that gives you like really cool aura and more people should do it especially right now.

I did not have aura farming on my bingo card for this conversation. I'm liking you bringing this energy. Um, so you could, this is the kind of news story I could do literally any year. This year is different. And here's why: the government cutting grants, aid, support, funding. There's like a whole world of people and services that were getting help through the government inadvertently, right? Because it was funding various kind of nonprofits and projects. So that's one. And then two, like the government shutdown. And, and then three, like, we've had this scenario now where more and more people are getting into debt with like buy now pay later, are struggling in one way or another. And they're not afraid I think it's been a tiny bit destigmatized to turn to their public and say, guys, help me, in a way that I don't feel like you would panhandle your neighbors, so to speak, right? Like you wouldn't do it physically, but socially the stigma isn't there. So those are my three theories about why this year feels different. Break them apart, tell me I'm wrong. Let's get into it.

'I don't think you're wrong at all. I think, well, we can start with sort of the funding crisis. That's something that you're seeing affect everyday Americans, both in terms of public programs. So things like SNAP, we saw that really scary time a couple of weeks ago when the government shutdown meant that one in eight American families couldn't access the money they need to literally put food on the table every week. That's really scary. And then when we're talking about non-profit organizations, which are the groups that these families go to when they need to get more food or when they medical help or anything. They're facing a really intense crisis this year. I think a lot of people don't realize that most nonprofits rely on government funding that can be federal, state or local for a lot their expenses. It is the single most important thing for them to cover their expenses more than sort of your everyday donations. And so the fact that the current administration has been really, in some cases, fully just canceling grants and some cases not fully fulfilling them. There are a lot of court cases still happening, so we're not sure exactly how to manage the budget this year, but the gist of it is a lot of nonprofits, most nonprofits even, are struggling with funding gaps because of those cuts. And a lot of these nonprofits are also dealing with higher prices, just like Americans have because of inflation, so Feeding America is spending a lot more on food than it used to, like, all of these organizations are also dealing with those higher costs. So that is, to me, that is like the number one thing that's made this year different in terms of actual funding. Giving is more important than it's ever been before because nonprofits are dealing with these gaps. I think you also mentioned sort of the GoFundMe economy, which I find endlessly fascinating and-

I guess it wasn't supposed to be a whole economy.

No!

It was supposed to be like, it was like, you know, extenuating circumstances, sometimes you need to... And I, it's no longer extenuating circumstances. It's just life.

Yeah. And in some cases that's a good thing. Like it's good that people feel comfortable like turning to their neighbors for help or turning to their virtual neighbors for help. And a lot of young people I think prefer to give in that way. Like they prefer to like an individual, they might be cynical about you know a nonprofit organization.

Yeah, at least we know where it's going is the thing I hear a lot.

Yeah, or they want that personal connection and I think that that's great. I think any kind of giving is great But there are some problems that come with that too in terms of like, what do I do if I really need help but none of my friends have a lot of money to donate to me, you know I'm never gonna do as well as some of those GoFundMe's you see for somebody who you know maybe comes from a place of more privilege and you know has a lot of social capital has a lotta followers on Instagram or TikTok

Okay, we're gonna pause right there. We're talking to Sara Herschander of Vox's Future Perfect about whether or not we are giving this year. So talk about how, in an era where everyone needs 50 bucks, how do we think about who to give to, why, what we have, that kind of thing. I come from a Christian background, so it's like 10%, right? You tithe. But like, how do you think about it?

'Yeah, I mean, a 10% would be great if we brought that back to more people. I don't want to give any sort of one size fits all solution. I think everybody gives differently and the best way to give is the one that you like. So somebody I spoke to compared it to like, find the exercise that you like and that's the best exercise for you. It's sort of how giving works too. Like it should be fun, it should be meaningful and it should like hit you close to your heart. That being said, I think number one for Giving Tuesday, what I hear from a lot of charities is it would be great if every Tuesday was Giving Tuesday or maybe the first Tuesday of every month. So when you're choosing-

So the subscription model.

They do want the subscription model.

Literally everyone wants the subscription right now.

I'm sorry to say it, but it's true because I think a lot of people get into it on Giving Tuesday, but then it's like, what about the rest of the Tuesdays?

Yeah.

What about the rest of year? So we're just going to throw that out there for people to to percolate in people's brains.

No, it makes sense. Literally everything is pay monthly now, so it does make sense that they would want to have steady access to whatever you're giving them. And it's just funny because coming from public media, that that was the whole bottle. So like the whole world has adopted this thing that we were always doing.

It's so true. You might also want to ask yourself if you want to address something. One of the people that I talked to talked about this as sort of like hitting at the root causes. So more of like a downstream or like an upstream sort of cause where you're helping to sort of address why this exists in the first place. So that could be activism for some people or it could be a group that's working on know, education, something like that.

Well can I pause? What I hear you saying is there are other ways to give that are not money.

Oh, of course.

'Well you're saying of course, but I don't think-

People realize that.

I don't think people realize that. You feel like either if I am in a position of privilege to give, I should, and it should be money. And then the other extreme is, or I'm working at a food bank every weekend, right? It's almost people put themselves in this position of, if I can't like practically work there, then what's the point?

That is not what we want people to feel.

You don't want us all trying to work there with our useless selves?

'No, you can go work there with your useless self. And I think people sort of discount volunteering in a way that I think is really short-sighted.

Oh, say more.

'Because I think, on one hand, you have the volunteer, you have the giver- volunteering is so much fun. I was literally removing phragmites from my local reservoir a few months ago because they were looking for-

I don't know what any of those words mean and it sounds amazing.

'It's an invasive plant that was like messing up the reservoir so they were like we're looking for volunteers to like get into waders and like climb down into the reservoir and pull it out. It was such a cool ridiculous crazy experience for me as somebody who spends most of the day on my laptop and it made me more engaged with that non-profit. You know I wanted to support them. I wanted support the work that they do. So like on one hand, volunteering is good because you're helping out. And there's a lot of stuff you can do to help out. Sometimes you really just need like some hands to pull out an invasive plant. And on the other hand, it makes you feel more connected to the organization that you're working with. I want people when they're thinking about their giving to think about it in a holistic way. This should be something enjoyable. It should connect to you. It should not feel like a chore, you know, it should feel like something that makes you more connected to your community and makes you feel empowered to address the issues that you care the most about. But I do think that when we get lost in the sort of optimizing everything, we can lose the fun of it all. We can lose like the heart of it all. And we can also lose out on a lot of really good charities who just aren't good at measuring their impact or don't have an impact that's easy to measure. So I think it's important to sort of, again, do what resonates with you. If that means going on to GiveWell's website and giving to the one of five charities with the cheapest way to save a life around the world. That is amazing. That's awesome.

That's an actual metric on this website.

That is, I mean, I don't know if it's called that, but that's, that is the gist of it.

Yeah, yeah, the data.

It's like efficiently saving a life. And oftentimes it's like a malaria net. That might be therapeutic food too. And again, this is like super important. There are real lives behind these numbers and that's a really important way to give. It's also really important to give to the food bank that you know that's near you or an organization that, whose mission really resonates with you.

One last question for the people who can't afford it. How should, I don't know, alleviate their guilt or how should they think about where they are this year?

I think it's easy to get sort of lost in the sauce of what we said before of like, if I can't give a hundred, a thousand dollars, then I'm not able to give back. And that's just not true. I think a lot of these statistics really miss out on the ways that people give back to one another every day. There are many, many ways to give. Sometimes that's being a listening ear for your friends. Sometimes that helping them move apartments. Sometimes that's lending your friend 20 bucks when they really need something to grab for lunch. There are so many different ways to give and you don't have to be wealthy to give at all.

Give yourself some grace.

Give yourself grace.

Sometimes it's your season, sometimes it is not your season and that's okay. Well, I'm looking forward to Giving Tuesday. Sara Hershander, thanks so much for giving me a sense of how to go into it this year.

Thank you.

That was Sara Herschander from Vox's Future Perfect project. Happy Thanksgiving and we're going to be back next week.