As we all head out to share Christmas or Hanukkah with our families and friends, we are preparing for the "perfect" holiday. There's always last minute shopping, wrapping, cards, cooking and the mad dash for the highway or airport. Except for the stress imposed by a ridiculous timeframe (I'd love to see these holidays pushed back to February) it's very nice to focus nearly exclusively on what we can do for others.
It's the perfect season to turn our attention to the Generous Nation campaign that inspires people to act on their best intentions to help those in need. View the campaign by visiting www.dontalmostgive.org. The campaign, announced in September, is really just now getting into rotation in television and outdoor. We are delighted that the Radio Advertising Bureau has selected Generous Nation for their holiday roadblock to be supported by over 12,000 radio stations through the holidays and all of January. Newspaper PSAs go out today.
So who is it we want to "Give"? Well, how about all those people who received multi million dollar bonuses at Goldman Saks? But seriously, the astonishing fact is that 85% of Americans report that they give to charity. So what is the goal for this campaign? Not just one annual gift, but yearlong engagement.
It's only human, this "almost giving". We are such an overscheduled society. But what if everytime we saw someone in need we actually acted on the impulse to help. Sometimes it's a donation of money. But it doesn't have to be money. Taking a meal to an elderly neighbor, a spare coat to the city coat drive, watching your neighbor's kids so she can take a much needed nap. The opportunity is to sieze the moment.
I know this campaign will work. Because generosity is part of the American DNA. We simply need to acknowledge that if we don't act when we see the need, the chances are we won't act at all. And that's the type of message so well suited to public service advertising.
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