This post is sponsored by T-Mobile. All views and text are my own.
The holidays are a time of togetherness and during these festive months, it’s also a great time to show our thankfulness and appreciation by giving back to others in need.
Our Family’s Giving Tradition
For our family, we’ve made it a tradition to help others in need not only during the holiday season but also throughout the year. We have found that having a family tradition of giving is not only humbling and fulfilling, but it’s also a great way to bond as a family. Each year, we choose a family or organization to support and give our time or donations to.
We get our kids involved and they get excited participating in activities of putting together items to donate. They were happy to fill Christmas shoe boxes with gifts to send to children in Third World countries through a Christian organization, or when my husband and I have them go through their closets a few times each year and they pick out the clothing items that they are willing to donate to the local homeless shelter. These acts of kindness may seem small now, but as they grow older, they will appreciate the importance of giving rather than getting and showing kindness to the less fortunate.
This year, our family also participated in Giving Tuesday (celebrated on November 27) and picked up canned goods and other personal care items to give to the needy.
We chose the StreetLight Community Outreach Ministries – a nonprofit organization that offers free programs and services to alleviate suffering among the poor and homeless in Prince William County and the surrounding counties of Northern Virginia.
T-Mobile and Giving Tuesday
As an ambassador for T-Mobile, I’ve learned so much about how T-Mobile helps to give back. I’m also happy to share that this year, T-Mobile set aside more than $2 million dollars for Giving Tuesday. I love that they are letting their customers, fans, employees (and yes, even Verizon and AT&T customers) decide where the donations will go. I admire companies that give opportunities for everyone to give back to others and T-Mobile definitely has done a fantastic job in this area.
On Giving Tuesday, T-Mobile offered the following:
- If you’re a T-Mobile customer: On Giving Tuesday (11/27) via the TMT app, customers were offered the chance to give $1 on us to Feeding America ($1=10 meals) – plus, participants had the opportunity to text-to-give as well. They also got the chance to win a gift code that they can use to donate to their favorite charity.
- Everyone: Every time someone retweet @TMobile’s Giving Tuesday tweet on 11/27, T-Mobile donated $1 (10 meals) to Feeding America.
- T-Mobile Employees: On Giving Tuesday, T-Mobile deposited $27 in every T-Mobile employees Giving Account which they can donate to any charity of their choice. T-Mobile also matched any additional donations on behalf of employees.
I also love that T-Mobile’s commitment to giving goes far beyond just Giving Tuesday! They also have programs supporting disaster relief, youth education, sustainability, hunger in America and more! To date, they have given more than $8M and 34,000 volunteer hours have been donated to local and national organizations.
If you’re on Twitter, follow T-Mobile and join us for a Twitter party tomorrow, November 29, 2018 at 9 PM EST where you have a chance to win one of five $100 Benevity Gift Code prizes! If you’re one of the winners, you can use these to give to the charity of your choice!
Giving Back What You Can
There are so many ways to give and we always tell our kids that they don’t need to spend money in order to give and to show they care. It can be as easy as offering a hot drink for those volunteers sitting out in the cold collecting donations for the local charity, or offering time to sit with a friend’s aging parent so that they can go do his/her errands, or helping to feed and take care of animals at the local animal shelter. You can give without spending a cent. You can give back what you can, perhaps have a look at Giving Tuesday and see how you can help out.
So this year, make lasting memories (with or without your family) by paying it forward and watch as the real magic of the season unfolds before you.
Like this post? Pin it here!
You Might Also Like…
A former school teacher, Jocelyn Brown created Hip Mama’s Place in 2007. Her motto for this blog is: get inspired, create and share! Jocelyn loves sharing about food and recipes, crafts, DIY projects and her random travels with her family. She also loves all things social media, but her latest obsession is Instagram.
Find me on: Web
Wow, what a great way to share your blessings to other. Indeed such a nice corporate social responsibility initiative.
Having a family tradition of giving is so awesome! I want to start doing that with my sons. It’s great that Tmobile is giving back too!
This is a great program to participate in. It’s so important to give back and to teach these values to our kids. What a great tradition!
That is wonderful. Its definitely a great thing to teach your children. We like to do toys for tots or our toy tree at our church, we love to also provide a full meal on Christmas to a family and donate to st. Judes.
What a wonderful tradition to pass down to your family. Giving back is something that we take very serious too and is engrained in everything we do. Happy Holidays to you and your family.
What a great tradition you have instilled in your family. If only more people were doing this! Bravo to T-Mobile for their giving back campaign!
it’s great to see that T-Mobile is giving back to the community and to see how involved you are. I volunteer at my company to help out with homeless veterans and on my own I give toys to my church. That said still searching for an organization for my teen daughter to give back.
making Thanksgiving to be a real giving holiday is the nices idea i ever heard, you have amazing family tradition to be proud of, great job
We work and give service all year long as well. Helping and serving is what humanity is all about
This is such a great family tradition and it must be passed along the newer generations to come. I am so glad to see that you are following this beautiful tradition of helping the needy people like a festival. Kudos to you and your family
Wow, I absolutely love what you and your family are doing. I wish there were more of this. This is what should be celebrated in the media. Way to lead by example!
This is such a wonderful tradition. Thank you for what you do. We’re also doing this in my local area and I know that these simple and meaningful gestures can bring so much happiness to others. May you continue to share love and joy this holiday season.
This is such a wonderful initiative! It’s definitely one of those things that I’d love to be involved in. Good for you to being a part of this. It’s really the season of giving back, but any day can surely be a ‘season’ like that 😀
I am glad that T-Mobile is giving back! It is very thoughtful and nice!
its always good to give back k especially during the holidays, great post!
I can feel all the love from the pictures. Giving is so important. God bless you
This is such a great idea. It’s important at Christmas to be thankful for all you have and realise others may not be as lucky
looking back to our tradition matters in life, Helping others gives benefits to our soul 🙂 Keep it up!
I love this!
Giving back to the community is great! keep it up! I also hope that more families do the same
Great idea! We try to remember to give year round and not just around the holidays! We love it!
Mobiles are perhaps now of the best gifts, especially when it is going to be for a family member.
Wooow! You such a have a good heart. What I love with a company is not forgetting to give back on the community.
I think this is a great family tradition. It may be a ‘small’ act of kindness but it means a lot to those who are in need. I also have to salute StreetLight Community Outreach Ministries for their work in helping the poor and homeless. Good on you for choosing them for Giving Tuesday. And you’re right, we don’t need to spend a cent to help others.
This is an amazing initiative from T-mobile, and well done for involving your kids in this charity action
Wow, that’s so generous of you,guys. Yes that’s rigjt it’s always better to give tham to receive. If you were the fortunate one that is capable of giving. Why not. God bless those loving people.
It’s so wonderful that you are teaching your children the importance of giving, not only during this time of year but year round. And what a great program T-Mobile runs!
Amazing family, keep doing what you’re doing! –
rom from https://www.dgitalnomad.com
It really is so rewarding and super easy to give back. I personally do not like all the businesses I frequent asking to round up or a dollar, I get one nearly every store this time of the year. I like to know exactly where my donations are going , like a food pantry, pet shelter, or gift tree for a child. It gives a more personal feel.
A tradition of giving is a wonderful family value. It’s great to show your family in this light. Giving back can be a fun and enjoyable event. Hopefully, other families will see this and make it a tradition as well.
I sadly admit that my family has been on the giving side less and less as each year passes. I want to make this year different. I am not a T-mobile customer, but I will gladly send a tweet to donate meals to Feeding America.
Wow, that is really a wonderful act of kindness and I salute you for doing that with your family. I really appreciate and admire those people who are giving their time and efforts in helping others without asking anything to return.
It is wonderful when you can get the kids in on giving back in the community and other areas. We have always involved the kids whenever possible because it helps teach them the importance of helping others. It is also important that people realize that Giving Back needs to happen all year long not just during the holidays.
This is such an amazing initiative. Giving back to the community is probably one of the least things we can do for humanity.
The world needs so much more of what you and your family are doing! It also warms my heart to see a large corporation like TMobile giving back as well.
We do something similar. This year, my 4yo joined neighborhood kids in collecting food and toiletries to donate to our local food bank.
Three cheers for T-Mobile’s Giving Tuesday Campaign! This is such a wonderful initiative on their part.
that’s so awesome about T-Mobile’s giving tuesday campaign!! I had not known. Wish I had 🙁
Joy at http://www.thejoyousliving.com