❤️🤝 National Nonprofit Day – August 17 🤝❤️
Somewhere this morning, someone is unlocking the door to a food pantry.
Someone else is loading pet food into a rescue van.
A volunteer is sorting donated backpacks.
A theater director is wondering how to stretch a grant approximately three times farther than mathematics suggests is possible.
A museum educator is setting up a children's program.
A crisis counselor is answering a phone.
And in a church basement, community center, hospital, shelter, library, nature preserve, neighborhood office, or very cluttered spare bedroom, someone is trying to make one small corner of the world better.
That is the heart of National Nonprofit Day, observed every August 17.
Today isn't simply about organizations.
It's about people who see a need and decide:
Somebody should do something about that.
And then become the somebody.
❤️ Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Today seems like an especially good day to remind everyone that clicking an affiliate link costs you nothing extra—and also that generosity comes in many forms.
🌎 The Work We Sometimes Never See
Nonprofits are woven so thoroughly into everyday life that we don't always notice them.
That summer camp your child attended?
Possibly nonprofit.
The historical society preserving old photographs?
Nonprofit.
The community theater where your neighbor became unexpectedly passionate about playing Captain von Trapp?
Could be nonprofit.
Animal rescues.
Hospitals.
Universities.
Food banks.
Museums.
Environmental groups.
Veterans organizations.
Arts programs.
Housing organizations.
Youth sports.
Disaster relief.
Libraries and their supporting foundations.
The list goes on.
Some organizations operate internationally with thousands of employees.
Others consist of six determined people, a folding table, a Facebook page, and one volunteer named Carol who somehow knows how to do everything.
Never underestimate Carol.
📜 Why August 17?
National Nonprofit Day is associated with an important moment in American history.
On August 17, 1894, the Tariff Act of 1894 became law. Among its many provisions was language concerning tax exemptions for certain charitable organizations.
The modern nonprofit sector and today's federal tax rules developed much later, but the date became connected with recognizing charitable organizations and their role in American life.
National Nonprofit Day itself is widely credited to Sherita J. Herring, who created the observance to bring greater attention to nonprofit organizations and the people behind them.
And there are a lot of people behind them.
Paid staff.
Board members.
Volunteers.
Donors.
Grant writers.
Accountants.
Event planners.
Drivers.
Mentors.
Coaches.
Foster families.
People who bake 400 cupcakes for fundraisers and somehow still volunteer to clean up afterward.
Heroes come in many forms.
Some carry clipboards.
💰 “Nonprofit” Does Not Mean “No Money”
This is worth clearing up.
A nonprofit organization can earn revenue.
It can employ people.
It can sell tickets, charge fees, receive grants, own property, run programs, and raise money.
The key difference is that a nonprofit does not distribute profits to private owners or shareholders in the way a traditional for-profit business does.
Instead, its resources support its mission.
And yes, nonprofit employees should be paid fairly.
Passion does not pay the electric bill.
Neither does “great exposure.”
The people doing difficult, skilled work in communities still need groceries, housing, health care, and occasionally a vacation during which nobody asks them to organize a silent auction.
🐾 Somewhere, Someone Is Saying Yes
One of the remarkable things about nonprofits is how specific they can be.
There are organizations helping children learn to read.
Organizations rescuing senior dogs.
Organizations preserving wetlands.
Organizations providing prom dresses.
Organizations building wheelchair ramps.
Organizations delivering meals.
Organizations helping veterans transition into civilian life.
Organizations protecting historic cemeteries.
Organizations supporting families whose children are undergoing medical treatment.
Organizations teaching people to garden.
Organizations saving sea turtles.
Somebody notices something that matters.
Then they gather other people who think it matters too.
That's how a surprising amount of good begins.
Not with unlimited resources.
With somebody caring enough to start.
🤝 A Few Things Worth Knowing
❤️ Nonprofits serve nearly every imaginable area of community life, including education, health, religion, arts, human services, environmental protection, and animal welfare.
💵 Donations aren't the only way nonprofits receive funding. Grants, memberships, program fees, events, sponsorships, and earned revenue can all play a role.
🙋 Volunteers contribute skills as varied as legal work, photography, bookkeeping, construction, tutoring, transportation, cooking, and social media.
📦 Small nonprofits may have very specific needs that aren't obvious from the outside.
🧻 Sometimes the most useful donation isn't glamorous at all.
Paper towels.
Trash bags.
Diapers.
Printer paper.
Pet food.
Gas cards.
Cleaning supplies.
Ask before donating.
Organizations know what they actually need.
🔍 Before making a significant donation, learn about the organization, its mission, programs, leadership, and finances.
💗 And remember: small gifts matter.
A nonprofit would generally rather have 100 people who genuinely care about its work than one million people who scroll past it.
🌟 Celebrate by Doing Something Useful
Choose one nonprofit you've never heard of and learn what it does.
Donate $5, $10, or whatever comfortably fits your budget.
Volunteer for an afternoon.
Clean out your linen closet and ask an animal shelter whether it needs towels.
Donate unopened toiletries to a shelter.
Give blood if you're eligible.
Offer a professional skill.
Photographers, designers, accountants, writers, attorneys, tradespeople, marketers, and tech-savvy humans can be enormously valuable to small organizations.
Share a nonprofit's fundraiser on social media.
Buy something from a charity thrift store.
Attend a community theater production.
Visit a nonprofit museum.
Sponsor an animal.
Join a cleanup.
Write a positive review for an organization you've worked with.
Thank a volunteer.
And perhaps most importantly:
Ask what is needed before deciding what you think is needed.
There is a life lesson hiding in that sentence too.
💌 The $17 Challenge
Since today is August 17, try something simple.
Choose a cause you care about and give $17.
That's it.
Not $1,700.
Not a gala table.
Seventeen dollars.
If that's outside your budget, give $1.70.
Or give seventeen minutes.
Share seventeen posts.
Pick up seventeen pieces of litter.
Donate seventeen cans of food.
Read to a child for seventeen minutes.
Kindness doesn't become more legitimate when a comma appears in the donation amount.
🍽️ The Community Table
Tonight's dinner is built for sharing.
Nothing fussy.
Nothing requiring culinary tweezers.
Just the kind of food you can put in the middle of a table and say:
There's plenty. Come sit down.
🍝 Big-Pot Baked Ziti
Ingredients
1 pound ziti
1 pound Italian sausage or ground beef
1 jar marinara sauce
15 ounces ricotta
2 cups shredded mozzarella
½ cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Directions
Heat the oven to 375°F.
Cook the pasta until just shy of tender.
Brown the meat and drain.
Stir in the marinara.
Combine pasta, sauce, meat, ricotta, and half the mozzarella.
Transfer to a baking dish.
Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake for about 25 minutes until bubbly.
Make two pans and give one away.
Now we're celebrating.
🥗 Everybody-Brings-Something Salad
Start with mixed greens.
Add whatever looks good:
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Carrots
Peppers
Chickpeas
Cheese
Sunflower seeds
Croutons
Nothing has to match perfectly.
That's sort of the point.
🥖 Pull-Apart Garlic Bread
Slice a loaf of Italian bread without cutting completely through the bottom.
Stuff the cuts with garlic butter and mozzarella.
Wrap loosely in foil and bake until warm and melty.
Sharing is encouraged.
Fighting over the crispy end piece will be handled by committee.
🍓 Helping Hand Punch – Mocktail
Combine cranberry juice, lemonade, sparkling water, sliced oranges, strawberries, and plenty of ice.
Make a pitcher.
This isn't a one-person holiday.
🍹 The Good Neighbor – Cocktail
Combine 1½ ounces vodka, 1 ounce cranberry juice, ½ ounce lime juice, and a splash of ginger beer over ice.
Garnish with lime.
Enjoy responsibly—and perhaps offer to make the next round for someone else.
🍪 Pay-It-Forward Cookies
Make your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough.
Bake half.
Divide the other half into a freezer-safe container and deliver it to a friend, neighbor, new parent, caregiver, or someone having a rough week.
Dessert now.
Dessert later.
Excellent nonprofit-adjacent resource allocation.
🍎 Teaching Kids That Helping Is a Verb
Elementary
Give each student a paper heart.
Ask:
“If you could help one thing in your community, what would it be?”
Animals?
People who are hungry?
Older neighbors?
Parks?
Children who need books?
The environment?
Students can draw their cause on the heart and add one action they could realistically take.
Then create a classroom Wall of Helpers.
The important lesson isn't that children must solve enormous problems.
It's that caring can become action.
Secondary
Challenge students to create a mini nonprofit.
They must choose:
A problem
A mission
A name
Who they serve
One program
A basic budget
A fundraising idea
A way to measure whether their program actually works
Then give them one unpleasant surprise.
Their grant was denied.
Donations dropped.
Demand doubled.
A major expense increased.
Welcome to nonprofit management, kids.
Please enjoy your complimentary stress ball.
💼 Around the Office
Try a Cause Swap instead of another generic fundraiser.
Ask each employee who wants to participate to submit the name of one nonprofit they personally care about and one sentence explaining why.
Post them anonymously.
Throughout the day, coworkers can read about causes they might never otherwise encounter.
If the company has a charitable-giving budget, randomly select one or several organizations for small donations.
The stories matter as much as the checks.
🎬 Movie Pick - A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Fred Rogers understood something nonprofits understand particularly well:
Changing the world often looks remarkably ordinary while you're doing it.
Listening.
Showing up.
Teaching.
Caring.
Helping one person feel seen.
The movie is gentle without being shallow and offers a fitting reminder that kindness is not weakness.
It is work.
📺 TV Pick - Parks and Recreation – “Telethon”
Leslie Knope stays awake through the night helping host a telethon benefiting diabetes research.
Things become increasingly ridiculous as exhaustion takes over.
It's funny because anyone who has ever helped with a fundraiser recognizes the energy:
The decorations are falling down.
Someone hasn't eaten.
The schedule is meaningless.
There are 43 cupcakes left.
And somehow,
WE ARE GOING TO MAKE THIS WORK.
Nonprofit event planners everywhere just felt something.
💬 The World Runs on People Who Care
Big problems can make us feel small.
There are too many animals needing homes.
Too many families needing food.
Too many illnesses needing cures.
Too many historic places disappearing.
Too many children needing mentors.
Too many people needing help.
So we tell ourselves:
What difference could I possibly make?
Probably not all the difference.
But some.
And “some” matters enormously to the person, animal, neighborhood, classroom, river, library, patient, veteran, family, or community receiving it.
Nobody fixes everything.
People fix pieces.
One meal.
One scholarship.
One rescued dog.
One planted tree.
One counseling session.
One wheelchair ramp.
One donated coat.
One afternoon volunteering.
One seventeen-dollar gift.
Then somebody else fixes another piece.
National Nonprofit Day isn't really about organizations.
It's about what happens when caring becomes organized.
And that's a pretty remarkable thing to celebrate.
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