I can’t help feeling that the news that yet another hole has opened in the ground in Manchester is too good a metaphor to waste. While the city is clearly enjoying economic success and is at the forefront of the devolution agenda, we’re also seeing increasing numbers of people sleeping rough, public services under threat due to budget cuts and enormous pressure on voluntary and community groups to provide support to people who need it. Our sector is finding it increasingly hard to provide things like advice services, support around depression and other mental health problems, support for people who are struggling financially because of low incomes, marginalised because of their health, illness, culture, education, age or any of a number of issues we still haven’t sorted out as a society. You can see why some people might feel the ground is falling away beneath their feet.
One thing we can do about it is support the organisations which assist people. The thousands of local voluntary and community sector organisations in Manchester provide this support day in day out but you can only understand why they’re effective if you remember what they are: these are local people getting together to do great things. Some are very small and informal and some look more like medium sized businesses with a social purpose – but they are all working on good causes. They might be focused on a particular place or a particular set of people and possibly they might be working on something you've not heard about before.
So I’m delighted to say that Macc has teamed up with Charities Aid Foundation and a group of other Manchester based organisations to launch a city-wide campaign encouraging support for local organisations working on good causes. We’re calling this Manchester Gives More and we’re proud to announce that our first action is that Manchester will be the first city in the UK to launch its own #GivingTuesday campaign.
The #GivingTuesday movement started in the USA in 2012. The whole point of #GivingTuesday is that it takes place after the manic shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday which have become part of the festive shopping season. More and more companies are bringing the Black Friday sales and the Cyber Monday online shopping spree to the UK. #GivingTuesday is a remedy to the pressures of Christmas spending and gives an opportunity to help the causes we all care about.
#GivingTuesday takes place on 1 December 2015.
Macc wants to encourage local people to treasure and support those Manchester groups and organisations which make such a difference in the city - the ones which can’t run big marketing campaigns or gain the attention of the national media. Macc’s ambition is to increase the level of donations (not just money but time, skills, ideas) that people in Manchester make to local organisations and causes.
Manchester Gives More is a call-to-action to everyone to give something back to this great city – whether it is making a charitable donation, volunteering time or simply spreading the word. We want Manchester to be the most generous city in the UK, a city which prides itself supporting local organisations for the benefit of Manchester people and doing our part to respond to international emergencies and showing solidarity for those facing a crisis.
Manchester can show the rest of the UK and the world how it’s done!
Where to start
• We’ve put together a page of ideas for things you can do to take part in Giving Tuesday: https://www.manchestercommunitycentral.org/whats-happening-manchester/giving-tuesday
• You can read more about the organisations who’ve signed up to take part in Manchester Gives More on the #GivingTuesday website: http://www.givingtuesday.org.uk/uk-campaigns/manchester-gives-more.html
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