My parents kept a large pottery bowl on top of a tall cabinet. The bowl was shallow and wide and throughout the year, they'd place in it all the letters asking for money. Come the beginning of December, they'd cull through the bowl, recycle duplicates and winnow down the pile to decide where their giving money would go.
Most of the giving I do takes the form of volunteering my time, baking for sales, and buying poinsettias and such for organizations in which my kids are involved. I may not have that wide, shallow pottery bowl, but I still care about where my money goes and how it can best help others.
One of the things I want my money to do is to help advance opportunities in sports for girls and women. As I mentioned in my review of
Blumenthal's, Let Me Play, the progress of women in education and in business has paralleled the progress of women in sports. Here are a few larger organizations that we've mentioned on Sporty Girl Books you might want to consider today on #GivingTuesday or any time of the year.
Women's Sports Foundation:
Founded in 1974 by tennis legend, Billie Jean King, the Women's Sports Foundation is dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity. Their programs include Sports4Life, a national effort to increase the participation and retention of African American and Hispanic girls, ages 11-18 in developmental youth sports programs and GoGirlGo!, an award winning curriculum and sports education program, that works to improve the health of sedentary girls and keeps girls involved in physical activity by supporting programs and organizations that work with girls. Donate here.
The Girl Scouts of America:
From building healthy girls to creating healthy leaders, the Girl Scouts are encouraging girls to participate in GirlSports, a program that promotes group and individual sports as an opportunity to gain vital leadership skills. They offer Legacy Athlete badges that signify good sportsmanship, cross-training knowledge, coaching skills, and more. They can upload their own stories and be inspired by sports trailblazers. Donate here.
Baseball for All:
Justine Siegal made history in 2011 when she became the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team. Her organization, Baseball For All, fosters, encourages, and provides opportunities for girls to participate in baseball. They educate the public concerning the importance of providing equal opportunities and provide resources for girls who are told they are not allowed to try out for a school team. "If you tell a girl she can't play baseball what else will she think she can't do?"
Donate now.
We Need Diverse Books:
If you read this blog, you probably know a little bit about this issue. Bottom line, all children should be able to see themselves in a book. This organization supports diverse authors in classrooms, internships in publishing, diverse books and programming, diversifying classrooms, and developing educational kits for libraries and schools. The organization's main goal is to promote non-majority narratives and many of our athletic girls fall into this category in one way or another.
Donate now.
Leave a comment below with a link to your favorite #GivingTuesday choice so that other readers can check them out!
