hello hello, beautiful friends! Happy 2025 to you all 🙂 In line with literally everyone in the world right now hammering down their goals and making plans, I’ve been doing the same while still on holiday break. Over on Substack last weekend, I published a post all about goals supporting the arts since I had quite a few on my personal goals list for 2025.
Before writing that post, I was also thinking about goals for people who want to do a little bit of good in more spaces than the arts this year and figured why not share some additional social good goals we could have. Similar to the Substack post: take what you like and leave the rest. Seriously, you don’t have to make any of these your top goals if you have enough or don’t want to or can’t or for any other reason. However, if you’ve been wanting to do a bit more good and need a place to start, I am, as always, happy to help 🙂 Let’s jump in:
- Find a cause to care about locally – This goal is more based in research, which is great for those with limited time and truly in an information seeking stage this quarter, half of the year, or all of 2025. No matter where you live, and this includes the most expensive zip codes in the country, there are problems around you. Even if they don’t impact you, the problems are there. For example, in Austin, although I was able to secure housing after a few tries, housing / growing number of unhoused people grew everyday. There were a million different opinions on why this issue was growing as rapidly as it was but at the end of the day, people were being displaced every day and to me, the city wasn’t doing enough. In Charlotte, housing continues to be an issue but what I’ve seen more recently, is more of a worry around food security: people having access to food, being able to afford food, the amount of people living in food deserts, etc. A simple “non-profits near me”, “social issues in ___”, “where to volunteer near me” etc. can kickstart your research into learning the community needs near you. Sometimes just being informed changes our behaviors more than having strict goals to do something specific.
- Contrary to the last sentence (lol), you can set a goal to volunteer once/month. This is something on my personal goal list. Right now I’m probably at 4x-6x/year, which is awesome, but every time I volunteer I tell myself I need to do it more often. If you’re looking to get more involved and have some time to spare, why not volunteer? If you’re just starting out, my recommendation is always a food bank. Simply because hunger is an everyone issue and food banks almost always need volunteers. Shift are usually (in my experience, this will vary by city and non-profit) 3-4 hours and have openings Monday-Saturday. Food banks, again, in my opinion, are a great place to volunteer if you’re just starting out and want to feel like you can make an impact in a short amount of time.
- Donate items to a local resource like a Little Free Library or Little Free Pantry (or start one) every other week – There’s nothing I love more than dropping off books to my local little free libraries. Since I have so many books, I rarely follow the “leave one, take one” model but I do love the feeling of stocking up a library with books for someone else to enjoy. Similar but different, Little Free Pantries are another great local resource to donate to. Purchase too many cans of a veggie? Drop it there. Going out of town and won’t actually eat your brand new loaf of bread? Leave a treat for folks. Have a few extra dollars and want to buy something extra in the store? Perfect excuse to make a stop at a little free pantry. If you have the space and want to take this commitment a step further, try setting up your own. Starting a Little Free library is straight forward with models you can build and a Little Free Pantry takes bit more creativity but just as fun!
- Donate cash moneyyyyyy (on a recurring basis) – As straightforward as it sounds: give money to a non-profit of choice. Contrary to what most people believe, anyone can be a philanthropist. Although we mostly hear this in terms of money, and a lot of it, you can donate one of the other t’s of philantrophy: time (volunteer your time), talent (lend your skills to a non-profit), testimony (share with others how a non-profit has impacted you or someone you know), ties (share wonderful non-profits and causes with the people in your network) and treasure (your money). One of my favorite ways I’ve started to financially give to non-profits is through recurring donations. When you go to donate on most website, you are given the option of a one-time or recurring donation. There are non-profits that take this recurring model a step further with a formalized giving circle where anyone can opt in to give the same amount of money as others. IMO, this is the perfect example of accessible collective giving power.
- Support your arts through quarterly attendance of events – I wrote about this a bit more on Substack so you can find five specific goals around supporting your local arts there but in addition to those, if you live in a city with any type of art from performing arts to museums to art showcases, you can commit to attend one event per quarter. Honestly, any event works and I know here in Charlotte, we are lucky enough to have a large art scene with events that range from free.99 to ~$500. BTW, if you’re a BOA cardholder, you can get into 225+ museums free every first weekend of the month.
- Clear a teacher’s wishlist twice a year- This one is a little different than the others but something I think we’ve all seen a bit more in the past few years is a greater need to support teachers near and far. Almost every county has teacher shortages and the teachers you know, I’m sure, are burnt out. Most of the time we think of clearing a list or donating school supplies at the start of the academic year in August/September but there’s also a need at the top of the calendar year. Notebooks are full, pencils have broken, binders have been lost, expo markers have been dried out and so on and so on. If you’re looking to do a little good this year and maybe don’t want work with a non-profit, supporting a local teacher is a great way to give back.
- Get a library card – This is also different type of goal because it benefits you as much as it benefits others. The more memberships a library has, often the more money they are able to secure for their library, new books they are able to buy and more resources they are able to offer. Every library is a different but here’s just a glimpse into some resources provided by my local libraries:
- Libby app – free e-books
- free resume help
- technology basic courses
- free bookclubs
- reading programs for children
- free room reservation for meetings and independent working
- LinkedIn Learning access
- Hoopla app- free audiobooks
- teacher curriculum resources
- digital literacy courses
And the list goes on and on! Your local libraries are often part of the backbone keeping communities alive and surviving. I am guilty of not fully using my local library so this week I am finally picking up a library card and am so excited! If you don’t have a local library, there are many libraries that allow you to be a member if you live in the state or a virtual member if you live further. You often still get the same perks and resources as with a local library.
Okay friends, I hope this list is a helpful start for you 💜 As always, you don’t have to do, try or even think about any of these. However, if you’ve been looking to do a bit more good and don’t know were to start, I’m hoping this list can help.
Thanks so much for reading 💋
Leave a comment!