Now that Black Friday has spawned Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and probably something on Sunday I'm forgetting, it's time for #GivingTuesday, in order to help you atone for your consumerist sins of the last week. Local arts organizations and other charities are all hoping that a few email blasts and special campaigns will draw some of your pre-Christmas dollars their way, and it should be a good reminder that now is the time to get yourself a tax deduction, assuming you have a fair amount to give.
Giving Tuesday is still a relatively new phenomenon, but a positive one, with Fast Company reporting that the day of philanthropy generated over $116 million in donations in 2015, up from just $46 million the previous year, and that represented gifts from over 700,000 donors.
Below is just a selection of giving campaigns to consider in the local realm. There are of course plenty of national charities seeking your donations today, like The Humane Society and the American Cancer Society.
American Conservatory Theater
SF's biggest and most established repertory company runs its own MFA program, keeps a year-round company of core performers, and recently debuted a second theater space on Market Street, The Strand, for producing more edgy work.
Berkeley Repertory Theater
This Giving Tuesday, Berkeley Rep is seeking donations of $9.46 to their youth matinee program, providing performances to Bay Area teens specifically helping them come to see the next big production there, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips.
CUESA
The local org that produces the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market and the Jack London Square Farmers' Market is dedicated to "cultivating a sustainable food system that works," which includes getting healthy food onto your tables and educating kids.
Food Runners
Mary Risley's terrific local organization provides a link between SF's booming restaurant industry and the organizations around town like St. Anthony's and Glide who serve meals to the poor and homeless, delivering leftover meals and ingredients that would otherwise go to waste. Any donation will get you onto their mailing list with invitations to special events, and gifts of $250 get you a t-shirt or apron.
GLBT History Museum
The nation's premiere collection of GLBT history memorabilia and artifacts needs constant help to maintain, catalog, and store its vast archive, much of it donated from the estates of SF residents who died of AIDS in the last few decades.
Glide Memorial Church
One of SF's premiere organizations assisting the homeless and indigent, Glide serves daily meals in their Tenderloin cafeteria and provides a host of programs and services to the community. Their mission: "to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization."
Homeless Youth Alliance
Certainly among SF's struggling homeless charities, the Homeless Youth Alliance was evicted from their longtime drop-in center space in the Upper Haight in 2013, and they continue to try to secure either another storefront or just an office. Nonetheless, their work continues, offering outreach and case management services to the city's youth homeless population, many of whom are LGBTQ or mentally ill.
The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
The JCCSF, founded in 1877, is the oldest Jewish organization on the west coast, and it provides a fitness center for members as well as performance and lecture series, art and ceramics classes, three preschools, and dozens of events and holiday celebrations throughout the year.
KALW
The scrappier of SF's two public radio stations and owned by the SF Unified School District, KALW can always use your support, especially now in their 75th anniversary year.
KQED
NPR fans, as well as PBS fans, are all surely familiar with SF's big affiliate station. They broadcast all the big guns, from This American Life to All Things Considered, and they also have original programming like The California Report, and City Arts & Lectures.
Photo: La Cocina/Facebook
La Cocina
Pioneering food incubator La Cocina provides business opportunities, primarily to immigrant women and women of color, by helping them to grow small businesses and become food entrepreneurs. And after just 11 years as an organization, they boast dozens of success stories, including Azalina Eusope of Azalina's Malaysian Cuisine, Alicia's Tamales Los Mayos, and Kika's Treats.
Larkin Street Youth Services
Another organization that provides vital services and housing to homeless youth in SF, "Larkin Street was founded in 1984 by a group of local business owners, church members, and neighbors who were concerned by the rising number of young people engaging in risky behaviors on the streets of San Francisco."
The Magic Theater
The Fort Mason-based Magic Theatre has been wowing audiences with new works and old favorites for decades, and for Giving Tuesday they're trying to reach a modest $5,000 goal to help fund their February production, Fool For Love (a legacy production celebrating one of the theater's breakout star playwrights, Sam Shepard). Those who donate today will get special acknowledgement in their Producers' Circle in the lobby, if the goal is reached.
The Marine Mammal Center
The Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center does some extremely important work caring for seals and sea lions in distress or orphaned who are found around the Bay, as well as conducting scientific research and providing educational opportunities. And gifts today are being matched up to $10,000 by the CAA Charitable Trust.
San Francisco Parks Alliance
This group dedicated to protecting, sustaining, and enriching San Francisco parks provides fiscal support to park improvement projects and contributes resources to grow and evolve the city's incomparable park system, including a project last year to research the latest in playground design trends.
SF Film Society
Memberships and donations to the SF Film Society's annual fund help youth education programs, and help to support emerging artists. And memberships, which start at $70, come with an extra three months today.
SF LGBT Center
The Center provides crisis counseling, homeless youth support, and job support for transgender people, noting that 70 percent of trans individuals are unemployed. They see about 100,000 visitors every year, and donations today to the Center are getting matched up to $100,000 by Mika Rueda-Albright and the Aria Foundation.
Museum-goers/models in front of Roy Lichtenstein's 'Figures With Sunset,' 1978. Photo: Henrik Kam courtesy of SFMOMA
SFMOMA
You can just become a regular member of this world renowned museum, but if you join at the Contributor level, starting at $300, you get reciprocal admission at dozens of museums across the country, including the Whitney and Guggenheim in New York.
SFSPCA
San Francisco's biggest and oldest pet shelter (~150 years) would like to remind you today that they are an independent, local non-profit that is not part of any national organization and does not receive any government funding. Donations of $1000 or more land you in the Heart of Gold Society, helping provide vital veterinary services to the pets of the poor, and those found abandoned.
Shotgun Players
In honor of this Berkeley company's 25th anniversary and their current, highly ambitious repertory season going on right now, perhaps consider a donation, which could win you perks like a backstage Q&A with a Shotgun artist.
St. Anthony Foundation
St. Anthony's boasts having served over 42 million free meals from its famed dining room over the past six decades. The organization, now over 100 years old, also provides recovery programs for the substance addicted, and gives out clothes daily.
