The Giving List

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even if it wasn’t the raucous family-packed affair we’re all used to. Hopefully by next year it will be safe for all of us to return to that long-cherished tradition of gathering with loved-ones even if we dread being seated next to that one random cousin with whom we have nothing whatsoever to talk about.

With Giving Tuesday this week and the inaugural Giving List guide having just landed in your mailbox, there’s been a lot of talk lately about the importance of giving and how it is deeply ingrained in our local culture.

We created The Giving List not only to celebrate the work of local nonprofits, but also because we saw a need for a user-friendly portal through which donors can easily access important information regarding local nonprofits in order to help them choose and proportion which causes and organizations on which to focus their giving. We worked hand-in-hand with participating organizations to tell their respective stories in a succinct and compelling way – to make their case, as it were, before Santa Barbara’s sophisticated and generous philanthropic community.

Because this is our first year producing The Giving List guide and the accompanying digital site – going live January 1 – which will be updated and refreshed monthly, we were able to include only 52 organizations the first time out. In choosing the first round of organizations, we worked to identify a diverse and representative cross section of deeply rooted local organizations that span the spectrum of categories of work in our local nonprofit sector. It was necessary for us to begin on a smaller scale in order to provide proof of concept and to execute it successfully – which includes, first and foremost, effectively connecting donors with nonprofits and thereby making both giving and fundraising easier, more focused, and ultimately more successful.

Given the feedback we are already receiving, we are very optimistic about the possibilities for The Giving List. As such, we are planning to expand The Giving List Vol. II to accommodate additional local nonprofits that are interested in participating in the program.

If you are involved with a local nonprofit that would like to be considered for next year’s Giving List, please contact tim@thegivinglist.com by February 15, 2021. We look forward to connecting with you to explore whether The Giving List makes sense for your organization as it strives to effectively communicate the value of its mission and raise the funds necessary to support your critical work.

For now, please enjoy reading through the remarkable stories included in this year’s Giving List, (which are also available online at MontecitoJournal.net.) We hope you find that these narratives capture the inspiring work being done by Santa Barbara’s local nonprofits which not only provide a critical social safety net in Santa Barbara, but are truly foundational to the functioning of a healthy and civilized society.