Thanks for the Fun on #GiveItAwayTuesday!

What a fun day it was yesterday!

From 8am to 8pm on Tuesday November 27, many of staff, board, and supporters of FIC hosted a marathon event we called #GiveItAwayTuesday.

Our premise was simple. So simple in fact that we were all laughing hysterically when we first joked about it! It was a late night hangout where we started getting goofy, after a few full days of productive FIC Organizational Meetings at the end of October. The premise was:

“What if we had a day where we just gave stuff away!?”

Just as much as we could, all day long. What can we give away, and how can we do it? What if… we create some fun live video and radio shows, and some games and giveaways, all as an elaborate excuse to just give back to everyone in gratitude. Just to thank you all!

Thank you. For your interest, and for your enduring and caring commitment to building, a more cooperative, accessible, sustainable, and nourishing world. We are your allies in this!

Thank you for participating in (or making it through!) our silly celebration to allow us to share our passion for giving and service. For joining in honoring the spirit of sharing and cooperation that is so imbedded in community, and which is such a part of the global day of giving — #GivingTuesday.

Thank you for enduring the technology challenges we encountered. :/ We struggled a few times, as participants called in from around the country to meet in a Zoom room with webinar controls we weren’t as familiar with, which was connected to a live feed to our Facebook page. You know how tech can go…

Some of the sound didn’t come through clearly, or sometimes not at all. A video we were showing froze, and another skipped. Rain foiled one musician’s participation, some free items were posted twice, at least one headache surfaced, and we overlapped a bit on our last two shows.

Creative Collaboration

All that considered, it was a great time, we learned a lot, we really enjoyed creatively exploring as a team, and… we have tons of ideas for how to do this bigger and better next year!

We envision working with a network of organizations to spread this day of sharing, as we all strive together to build a new economy, a new culture, and a new paradigm of wellness, connection, security, and dignity.

…And of course, We Gave It Away!

Here are some notable numbers from the inaugural #GiveItAwayTuesday:

• 50 Communities Directories downloaded
• 30 posts to Facebook with giveaways, videos, and inspiration
• 7.5 Hours of LIVE streaming shows
• 6,000 video views throughout the day
• 1,600+ comments, reactions, likes, and shares
• 25 Books, Films, Subscriptions, and Memberships given away
• 2 Consulting hours, 2 Night stays, and 2 CDs given away
• 35 free music downloads curated and shared by the Give It Away radio show
• 3 Songs sung live, and one played by a rubber chicken!
• 3 Gifs sent through our group message (< More teamwork on this next year!)

…Here is one more to close out our first attempt at celebrating this giving holiday, and the reason we did this all in the first place: