Inspiration for Giving Tuesday

I recently read an article about nine Nanas, and I just can’t stop thinking about them. For more than three decades, nine women in Tennessee kept a covert giving operation so under wraps that not even their husbands knew about it. Once a month, they would wake up early in the morning and meet at 4:00 am to bake pound cakes and wrap them up together with monetary gifts and a kind note that often had the message, “Someone loves you.” The Nanas would either mail the cakes, or quietly drop them off at the houses of families in need early in the morning before anyone could notice them, then quietly disappear back into their lives.

To find out which families in their community were in need, the Nanas would listen carefully when they went to their hair salon, grocery store, or church—listening for signs that a family may be struggling. When they were unable to find these tips at the physical places they would visit, the Nanas would call their local utility company and ask if they could anonymously pay off a past due bill.

The remarkable thing was that none of the Nanas had a lot of extra money. They themselves lived on a tight budget. But they would cut coupons and find ways to save and pool their money together so they could buy the ingredients for their pound cakes and send money to their neighbors in need. The women were so good at saving up and pooling small amounts of money, that it took almost 30 years for one of their husbands to scrutinize their bank statements enough to question the spending. Once one husband found out, the women called all the husbands together in a room to explain what they had been doing to help people who had fallen down on their luck or needed some help. All of their husbands decided they wanted to help too.

I’m not advocating for keeping secrets from spouses. But I do think we can all try to be more like the nine Nana’s. We don’t have to be wealthy to make a difference in someone’s life. The Nana’s have shown us that sometimes all it takes is a delicious cake made with the secret ingredient (love), or a donation to help pay the bills to improve the situation of someone in need.

This Giving Tuesday, we can all take some time to make a donation to a charity that inspires us. We can brighten someone’s day, uplift our community, and change a life for the better. So, in this season of giving, if you want to help someone in need, you don’t have to wake up at 4:00 am to bake cakes or be your own investigator to find someone in need. You can make a donation to a charity that helps people in need every day. And if you are inspired by the nine Nana’s, you can even add a message with your gift, “Someone loves you.”