Your hard earned is your hard earned, and we get that. But if you want to see collective giving really take flight, consider the impact if we each donated a day of our pay to a good cause. Even just once a year.

The average full time daily wage in Australia is around $300, and there are around 8,392,300 people in full time employment. Imagine for a minute that each of those people donated one day of pay – and consider the community impact. It‘s over $2bn, by the way.

This should only be a consideration for you if you can afford it and the cynics out there will retort: ‘we do have a taxation system’. And that’s fair, everyone pays tax to ensure we can afford our social infrastructure. But there’s a difference: giving makes us feel good. The mere mention of the word ‘tax’ has people wincing.

How does giving make us feel good?

Participants of a study undertaken by the University of Oregon were given $100 and asked to split it between themselves and a local food bank. Those who gave the full amount to the foodbank, showed a great wave of satisfaction on their MRI scan.

So how do you give a day of pay?

If your employer has workplace giving, you can give a day of pay as a one-off donation to your charity of choice – or to a couple of charities if you like. There are 1,900 charities on Good2Give’s workplace giving platform covering a wide range of needs, including animals, aged care, children and young people, indigenous, and overseas aid and development. Sign in now, or donate directly to your charity of choice.

If you can’t afford to give a day of your salary away – and many people can’t (mortgage to pay, mouths to feed, transport or study to afford) then you could give $1 every day for the month of November – and $28 will put food on the table for those who are most in need for a couple of days.

To celebrate #GivingTuesday, we are asking Australians to give a little and then share their efforts with a photo or post on Facebook or LinkedIn. All you need to do is tag @good2give  #GivingTuesday with your post.

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