ATLANTA — It's the season of giving, and nonprofits in Georgia are hoping you do just that this Giving Tuesday.
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving focuses on giving back to charities and nonprofits in the community.
CEO of the nonprofit Helping Mamas Jamie Lackey said inflation is bringing in fewer donations and more people in need.
"We did 900,000 diapers for all of last year. We're already at 1.3 million this year," Lackey said. "So the families we're serving, some of them are brand new families. They've never needed help before. But, the cost of inflation has just gotten so much between gas, between basic needs, and they're having a hard time making ends meet right now."
The need grows, while donations seem to slow down. That inflation has also made it harder for the community to donate diapers and baby items to the nonprofit, which distributes the supplies to families in need.
However, Helping Mamas has not stopped helping and does not plan on stopping – despite inflation getting in the way.
"Definitely seeing a slowdown. We're seeing smaller packs of diapers, which is fantastic and we love, but it's not at the same volume that we were receiving in years past," Lackey added.
This Giving Tuesday, different organizations hope to see more items pile up on their shelves and more volunteers come to help.
The drastic need is being seen across metro Atlanta nonprofits including Hope Atlanta, which helps keep Georgians avoid homelessness and hunger.
Julio Carrillo is the CEO of Hope Atlanta.
"We have seen the cost of food right now going up 11%. Even in our own community kitchen, we buy food so that we can support homelessness – individuals that are coming to an organization," Carrillo said.
The GA Gives campaign coincides every year with Giving Tuesday, a tradition that was started to follow the shopping holidays of Black Friday and Cyber Monday with a reminder that the holidays are about helping others too.
11Alive is a sponsor of GA Gives, which last year helped raise more than $27 million from over 180,000 donations for nonprofits in the Peach State. This year marks 10 years since the founding of GA Gives, and in the last decade, it has seen more than 556,000 donations raise more than $90 million.
The movement makes it easy for you to donate money to nonprofits for no additional fee on its website.
CEO of the Georgia Center for Nonprofits, Karen Beavor, explains donations dropped nationwide by 7% in the first half of the year, and hopes on Giving Tuesday, we'll see the opposite.
"We work with every nonprofit that is registered with the Secretary of State's office in Georgia. It's been a really rough few years. We've been dealing with immense demand," Beavor said.
Everyone wants people to know that every dollar helps.
"It's all about coming together on this day of generosity, picking a cause you care about, and supporting that cause with whatever you have your time, your talent, your treasure," Beavor added. "They think my $5 doesn't matter, but it really does. $5 might feed a child three meals, it might feed a dog for a week. Combined with all the other $5 givers, it could make a very large number."
Lackey agrees, saying, "every bit counts. In July of this year, we served as many folks and distributors than we did all of last year. So, the need is just staggering."
Different causes, same needs. You can head over to the Georgia Gives website to help organizations push through a tough time.
"We want to make sure that for those who are on the streets that we can grab them right away so that they don't die because they are going to bed with days or weeks of not having a healthy meal in their stomachs," Carrillo said. "So, it's very important for us, the support of the community."