Skip Black Friday, And Do Some Good

Television ads and newspaper inserts are already gearing up for a fanatical holiday season as chain stores focus on capturing America’s finite gift budget.  In just a few days, people will be pushing away from their Thanksgiving Day tables, not for football and chatting in the family room, but rather for malls and plazas.  They will leave their loved ones on the day of Thanksgiving to get in line for gifts that will be forgotten, broken, or misplaced even before the winter thaws. Shoppers cry outrage about the stores that will open earlier than midnight of Black Friday, but they do it while getting their kids bundled to stand in line with them, never noticing the irony, much less their culpability in this annual conglomerate cash grab.

What is the purpose of this annual blitz of credit abuse?  Why, to show people we love them, of course.  And we do this by leaving their side on a holiday.  I am noticing an absence of logic here.  Now lets ask ourselves a tough question: does Uncle Joe really want or need another horrible tie just because you don’t know what he wants?  So you end up settling for something that Joe will just have to return in the post-holiday sale blitz.  Now this is not intended to be a Grinch-like rant.  I am just thinking there might be an alternative to the chaos for us adults.  Toys for children make sense; after all, some of my fondest memories are of unwrapping the newest, coolest toy.  But as we get older and shopping becomes more difficult, maybe there is an alternative.  After all, most of us, if we want or need something, we just go get it.  And if it is so expensive that we just cant go out and get it, odds are, no one in the family is going to get it for us either.

Here is an idea to refocus your gift dollars- and take a tax write off in the process.  Rather than struggling to figure out something your loved one may or may not like, why not support your loved one’s favorite charity by making a donation in that person’s name?  This helps an organization your friend already believes in, you get to help people in a meaningful way, and if you really need that extra shove, you can write off your gift on the upcoming year’s income taxes!

The key to making this gift special is that it should be a charity your loved one believes in.  Donating an acre of Brazilian Rainforest in your buddy’s name doesn’t mean much if he is not environmentally active, just as donating money to a pro-gun lobby doesn’t make sense if your loved one is a pacifist.

How do you know what the right charity is?  Well, the easiest way to find out is to ask the person.  Simple enough, right?  Then, just go to the charity’s website and click on the “Donate Here” button.  Most not-for-profit charities make donating a very simple process.

Some charities have even started campaigns where members can initiate the process themselves.  With my charity of choice, all a member has to do is go to www.AcromegalyCommunity.com and click on the “Get Involved” button.  The rest of the process takes seconds.  After set-up, all a member has to do is email their friends and family asking them to donate to that specific cause, rather than going shopping.

Lets remember the reason for the season.  Save your car the miles, avoid the crowded malls, and skip the bloated credit card bills in January; all to help your loved ones help their favorite cause.  Everyone will feel better for it.

Wayne Brown is the founder of Acromegaly Community; a group focused on patient advocacy, and was the lead writer for the collaborative book Alone in My Universe: Struggling with an Orphan Disease in an Unsympathetic World.  He can be reached at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it