What’s next? Let’s do good

A while ago I mentioned the idea of Untroll Thursdays, created by best-comedian-on-YouTube Megan MacKay. It was another of those things I wanted to do which fell by the wayside because real life got in the way, as it usually does.

But I was reminded of it as I wrote my Monday post, and thinking about some of the activism work being done in the US by movements like Indivisible, and especially the idea of Resist Trump Tuesdays. Activism is bloody tiring, even for people who don’t do it for their day job. And there’s so many good fights to fight, you could spend every hour of every day fighting them and not even scratch the surface of all the country’s problems. Besides, most of us don’t do this for a day job. We have to choose how much time and energy we can commit.

So this is my latest idea: Do Good Thursdays. A post a week on concrete actions you can do or groups you can support here in NZ who are doing good.

If we end up with a National-led government, those fights are going to get a lot harder. If we end up with a Labour-led government, as I said in on Monday, we’ll need to keep the pressure on them and build visible, vocal, public support for a strong progressive agenda. Supporting these groups, taking these actions, chipping in where we can: we have to remember that every little bit helps, and those of us who can help more – because we have platforms, or money, or other resources – must.

As luck would have it, while I was pondering all this I saw a Twitter conversation about what socially-conscious financially-secure folk could do with those tax cuts the National Party keep promising us; and that led to the One Percent Collective. They say:

We’re a small team based in Wellington out to make donating 1% of your income to charities easy and a really great experience.

How? Our board of trustees review and select some of the best smallish Kiwi-based charities out there so that you don’t have to, then we make it easy to share one regular donation between as many of them as you like. Your charities receive regular funding, which frees them up to be innovative and focus their efforts on the issues they exist to solve, and we focus on connecting you with the impact your 1% has on people in the community through regular stories and events with your charities.

The best part is that 1% is diddly squat, but it adds up quick. There’s hundreds of generous people currently donating their 1%, and we’d love to see this be the norm here in Aotearoa and all around the world.

For some of us, 1% is a pittance. For others, it’s a lifeline. Go forth, and do some good.

(And if you have any suggestions of causes to dedicate a Thursday to, drop it in the comments!)