{"id":49497,"date":"2025-12-01T23:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T23:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/49497\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T23:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T23:56:08","slug":"giving-tuesday-vastly-important-to-area-nonprofits-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/49497\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Tuesday ‘vastly important’ to area nonprofits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dealing with increased costs and rising demand, the leaders of several local nonprofit organizations stressed financial support is more important than ever on Giving Tuesday this year.<\/p>\n

Angela Bassani, president and CEO of the United Way of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike counties, stressed each donation makes a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery dollar stays local, so it means you\u2019re helping your neighbors, the people you pass in the grocery stores that are having a hard time getting by, facing something in their lives,\u201d she said. \u201cThe challenges are greater than ever, especially after we\u2019re just coming off a state and federal budget impasse. People are struggling more than they have in many years, it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 with a simple premise: a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, the global movement has strived to unleash the power of \u201cradical generosity\u201d around the world.<\/p>\n

While Giving Tuesday highlights the work of nonprofits around the holidays, Bassani noted small contributions spread out throughout the year keep the organizations running.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ripple effect is enormous,\u201d she said. \u201cI think sometimes people think that if they can only give a couple dollars it\u2019s not doing much, but when you add that up with hundreds of other people who are also giving a few dollars it really does add up, and it\u2019s substantial. It\u2019s such a lifesaver. That small act of kindness means someone gets to keep their heat on, someone gets to have food, or a child gets school supplies that they wouldn\u2019t have otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lexis<\/p>\n

Lexis Tonkin, postpartum doula at Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on N. 7th Ave. in Scranton, organizes toys on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The group is setting up a \u201cToyland\u201d room where families enrolled in an Outreach program can come and pick out gifts for the kids for the holidays. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

\"Toys<\/p>\n

Toys are laid out at Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on N. 7th Ave. in Scranton on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The group is setting up a \u201cToyland\u201d room where families enrolled in an Outreach program can come and pick out gifts for the kids for the holidays. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angel<\/p>\n

Angel Seibert, program director at Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on N. 7th Ave. in Scranton organizes toys on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The group is setting up a \u201cToyland\u201d room where families enrolled in an Outreach program can come and pick out gifts for the kids for the holidays. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

\"Lexis<\/p>\n

Lexis Tonkin, postpartum doula at Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on N. 7th Ave. in Scranton, organizes books on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The group is setting up a \u201cToyland\u201d room where families enrolled in an Outreach program can come and pick out gifts for the kids for the holidays. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

\"Toys<\/p>\n

Toys are laid out at Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on N. 7th Ave. in Scranton on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The group is setting up a \u201cToyland\u201d room where families enrolled in an Outreach program can come and pick out gifts for the kids for the holidays. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 5<\/p>\n

Lexis Tonkin, postpartum doula at Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on N. 7th Ave. in Scranton, organizes toys on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. The group is setting up a \u201cToyland\u201d room where families enrolled in an Outreach program can come and pick out gifts for the kids for the holidays. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Tracey Selingo, founder and interim executive director of Edwardsville-based Fork over Love, started the nonprofit nearly five years ago and has been pleased with the development.<\/p>\n

Through November, more than 104,000 free meals have been served in Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties through the collaboration with other nonprofits and neighborhoods, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started in January 2021 in order to bridge the gap between independent restaurants and residents who were both struggling to put food on the table for very different reasons, and we\u2019ve organically grown in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties over the years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve partnered with over 100 independent restaurants to serve food in a number of different communities. Today, we have 32 certified restaurant partners between both counties and we partner with over 30 nonprofits to deliver food on a weekly, biweekly and monthly basis, and we\u2019ve been able to reinvest more than $1 million into the independent restaurant community.\u201d<\/p>\n

While donations are important, Selingo added that Giving Tuesday has a dual purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly important day for raising awareness about not just funding, but also spreading kindness and doing good in the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As the need for free meals persists, Selingo hopes to continue filling the void.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy that we\u2019ve been able to work with the community to nourish it on a whole new level where we\u2019re helping the local economy and helping people who are food insecure,\u201d she said. \u201cThe numbers unfortunately just continue to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

From now until the end of the year, every $10 donation puts a hot meal in someone\u2019s hands, Selingo added.<\/p>\n

Lori Chaffers, president and CEO of Outreach \u2013 Center for Community Resources on North Seventh Avenue in Scranton, stressed the nonprofit is part of AllOne Charities Give Day, which means Outreach will receive a dollar-for-dollar match for every dollar up to $1,000. There is also $70,000 worth of prizes available for the participating nonprofits, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, that\u2019s a huge opportunity to really have a critical impact on our budget this year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Outreach hopes to raise about $30,000 through its annual end-of-the-year campaign, making a successful Giving Tuesday vital this year, Chaffers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably more important than ever, because with the state budget impasse just finally getting passed about a week-and-a-half ago, money is just starting to trickle in,\u201d she said. \u201cAnything that comes in is really going to carry us through the end of the year. Just like everybody else, our prices have gone up. We\u2019re feeling the crunch of the burden of tariffs and inflation \u2014 everything from our electric bill to our health care has gone up, and our money hasn\u2019t. These dollars are critically important for us to sustain the services but also increase them to meet the higher demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Bassani appreciates every donation Outreach receives, she just hopes people consider making a donation to any of the groups that help people throughout the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many phenomenal nonprofit organizations that keep our community afloat,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether you\u2019re giving to Outreach or somewhere else, every one of those dollars counts to make our community safe and thriving. It\u2019s about finding something that speaks to your heart locally, whether you want to help children or senior citizens who are struggling, or anything in between. You never know when it could be you that needs help one day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dealing with increased costs and rising demand, the leaders of several local nonprofit organizations stressed financial support is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[28471,201,182,803,139,28,4399,178,180,179,802,1481],"class_list":{"0":"post-49497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-edwardsville","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-pike-county","15":"tag-scranton","16":"tag-scranton-headlines","17":"tag-scranton-news","18":"tag-top-stories-cvc","19":"tag-wayne-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}