Blog

It is a funny week, with the little names for the all days: Black Friday (and now Black Wednesday and Thursday, too), Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday. Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, which is a push to get folks to think about their end-of-year philanthropic gifts during the holiday season.

I’m of two minds about Giving Tuesday. Part of me thinks that anything that gets people to support non-profit causes is great, gimmicky name or not.

But there’s another part of me that thinks it is important to have charitable goals all year, not just on a day with a hashtag.

Nashville Paddle Co. donates its proceeds to organizations that work on water protection and conservation issues, including the Cumberland River Compact (announcements on our 2014 recipients are coming soon). We do this on every single rental, lesson and sale (and, yes, gift certificates, too). In addition, members of the Cumberland River Compact will receive a discount on fees in 2014. We’ll also donate gift certificates to silent auctions for local non-profits. This year we’ve supported the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, the Africa Yoga Project, the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition and many others. (E-mail us if you have a donation request for 2014.)

This makes us feel good, of course, and we hope it does some good. But it is not entirely altruistic. We give to these organizations in part because we get something out of it, too: Clean places to paddle with easy access to the water and awesome wildlife to watch.

We hope that through our work, you learn more about the organizations in the Nashville area and then make decisions to support the causes that matter to you, either by giving or volunteering.

So, whether you make a donation somewhere this Giving Tuesday, or just want to come paddle and let us do the giving, we’ve hope you’re with us on making Middle Tennessee a better place all year long.