When we invite someone to give - to give financially, to volunteer, to pray, to stand with a cause - we often carry a quiet goal: Get to yes.

This week’s challenge is different.

Choose the person, not the outcome.

The next time you invite someone to give with you:

• Ask one sincere question before you make your request.

• Listen without steering the answer.

• If the answer is “not now” or “not this,” respond with respect, not pressure.

And if you can:

• Help them clarify what they are called to give to.

• Point them toward something that fits their season, even if it isn’t yours.

Real generosity doesn’t begin with a transaction.
It begins with relationship.

For nonprofit leaders and fundraisers, this is not soft advice. It’s sustainable strategy.

Long-term trust outlives short-term wins.

That’s this week’s Giving Challenge.

— Avi

The difference between prominence and significance.

Prominence is being seen.
Significance is seeing beyond yourself.

He reminded us that real giving demands sacrifice. It should cost you something - time, attention, comfort - because it is an act of service.

So here’s this week’s Giving Challenge:

Choose one act of willingness.

Not the thing you want to do.
The thing you are willing to do, because it’s needed.

That might look like:

• Showing up for someone when it’s inconvenient

• Taking responsibility for a task no one wants

• Checking in on a neighbor instead of scrolling past

• Making space for a real conversation when you’re tired

• Doing one quiet act of service with no credit attached

This isn’t about visibility.

It’s about willingness.

For nonprofit leaders, volunteers, fundraisers - and anyone trying to live generously -significance grows in the places where we quietly choose responsibility over recognition.

Consider this your friendly nudge to do what you’re willing to do, for someone else.

That’s this week’s Giving Challenge.

— Avi

In this episode, Dr. Victoria Sarvadi described what it means for a foundation to act as a sponsor.

In practical terms, that might look like recommending a project, vouching for a leader, or putting institutional weight behind someone else’s work.

But sponsorship isn’t limited to foundations.

This week’s Giving Challenge is simple and practical:

Look for someone else’s vision you can stand behind.

That might mean:

• Making an introduction

• Offering credibility

• Opening a door

• Speaking someone’s name in a room that they’ve not yet been invited to

Sponsorship asks the question:
Who can move forward because you were willing to stand with them?

That’s giving, not by being the visionary but by protecting it, amplifying it, and helping it take root.

Happy giving!

But one of the clearest lessons from this conversation with Angel Poorman is that meaningful giving often begins somewhere quieter:

With listening.

This week, when you encounter a situation that stirs your compassion — at home, at work, or in your community — pause before stepping in.

Ask a simple question:

• “What do you need right now?”
  or

• “How can I be helpful?”

And then listen, without rushing to respond.

Real generosity is about how we give, when we give, and whether we’ve taken the time to truly see the person in front of us.

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Not with answers.
Not with solutions.
But with presence.

Revis and Lashawn spoke about how real leadership in Texas often looks quiet. It looks like standing with someone. Listening first. Understanding the land, the people, and the moment before deciding what comes next.

That insight shaped this week’s Giving Challenge, which we’re calling:

The Show-Up Challenge

The Challenge:
This week, show up for someone without trying to fix anything.

That might look like:

• Listening fully before offering advice

• Letting someone name their own need

• Sitting with discomfort instead of rushing to resolve it

• Being present without an agenda

This week, resist the urge to lead with solutions.
Lead with attention instead.

Because sometimes the most generous thing you can give begins with a genuine commitment to those in need.

If you haven’t watched or listened yet, the full episode is now live:

• YouTube

• Spotify

• Apple Podcasts

This week, take a moment to thank someone for their commitment to serve. Let’s recognize the choice to take responsibility for others.

It might be someone in public life, or someone much closer to home. A teacher, a coach, a volunteer, a caregiver, a community leader. Let them know that their effort is seen, and that it matters.

This should be easier than it seems.

1. Send a short thank-you message (text, voice note, email, or handwritten note).
   Make it specific. Name what you’ve noticed.

2. Don’t ask for anything.
   No agenda, no follow-up request. Just appreciation for their service.

Remember that by recognizing the giving of others, we learn how to strengthen our giving muscles along the way.

And thank you for tuning in to You Are What You Give and for being part of a community that believes generosity takes many forms, in public life and in private life, in leadership and in gratitude.

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So this week’s Giving Challenge is not about choosing a new cause or increasing a donation.

It’s about clarity.

The Challenge

Take a few quiet minutes and reflect on your giving. What motivates you to give? .

Ask yourself:

• What part of my identity shows up most clearly in my giving?

• Am I giving because of pressure or purpose?

• Is my giving shaped by headlines, or by values that endure beyond them?

• Where have I been consistent, even when it would have been easier to step away?

• Am I giving to influence outcomes, or to faithfully fill my personal role?

Beyond Me

When giving is aligned with identity, it assumes additional meaning.
When it’s aligned with purpose, it expands.
And when it’s aligned with something larger than ourselves, it can stand the test of time.

When you focus on your purpose, you end up seeing well beyond yourself.

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As the Hanukkah prayer reads: “... in those days, in our time…”.

This week’s Giving Challenge:
Revisit a kind of giving you used to do.

Maybe it was a cause you supported before life got busy.
Maybe it was a person you once showed up for consistently.
Maybe it was a role you played that mattered more than you realized.

Or maybe it was a holiday gift that no longer seems to rank at the top of the list.

Ask yourself:

• Why did this giving matter to me then?

• Does the need still exist?

• What would it look like to return to that giving, even in a small way?

You don’t need to restart everything. You just need to reconnect.

Giving doesn’t always mean finding something new. Sometimes it means remembering what has always mattered to you, and choosing not to leave it behind.

As we celebrate the eighth candle of Hanukkah, a season defined by light added gradually one night after the next, this challenge may be simpler than ever.

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Bruce began w ithhis kitchen table, where values conversations take shape. And that’s where this week’s Giving Challenge begins.

The Giving Challenge: Use Your Kitchen Table as Your Platform

Choose one value, cause, or commitment that genuinely matters to you, and bring it into a conversation with the people closest to you.

Your kitchen table is the most authentic platform you have. If you can speak your values at home, you will come to appreciate them even more.

Why Accept This Challenge

Bruce reminded us that giving begins with clarity — and clarity strengthens relationships.

When you tell someone what you care about:

• You open new pathways for generosity.

• You model purpose for the people who look to you.

• You live out your values instead of keeping them private.

Your life setting is precisely where your giving should grow.

Where to Begin

Ask yourself:

What is one value or cause I want those closest to me to know truly matters to me?

Name it. Share it. Listen. Refine.

Let the conversation unfold naturally. And enjoy the journey.

A Final Invitation

If this episode with Coach Pearl resonated, consider sharing it with someone who might appreciate the gift. This, too, can be part of your values conversation.

Expand the circle of giving.

Tila Falic reminded us that most of us began giving because someone in our life modeled it. Someone introduced giving as a lifestyle. Someone opened a door.

This week, you can open that door for someone else.

Here are a few ways to do it:

1. Talk about what you care about.

Choose one project, cause, or community you genuinely value. Bring it into a conversation with a friend, a colleague, or a family member. Not to persuade. Simply to share.

2. Invite someone to join you.

If you’re volunteering, giving, or supporting a specific effort, extend an invitation. One person. One opportunity. One step.

3. Create a moment for someone else to give.

It might be as small as forwarding a link, offering a volunteer shift, or pointing someone toward a need they would want to meet.

4. Share the episode.

If Tila’s clarity, energy, and discipline resonated with you, passing the episode to someone else is itself an act of giving. It widens the circle by bringing another person into the conversation.

Give someone in your life the chance to give, not because they “should,” but because meaningful opportunities often appear only when someone names them.

Rob Adams made a promise. It was the first step towards transforming gratitude into giving.

Years later, Rob made good on that promise. And the scope of his ability to support hundreds of families in need was far greater than anything he had envisioned.

Rob’s story reminds us that a giving promise has two essential phases:

1. Clear Intention

What matters to you? How can you be intentional? In what way will you give?

Thanksgiving is an opportunity to recognize and experience gratitude. As you express that gratitude, you may be drawn to share what you have with others. That’s the perfect stage for making a personal commitment.

Today’s Giving Challenge is to make a small, personal commitment to bring good to someone beyond yourself. This can be about giving to someone new, giving more, or giving better. Another step in your giving journey.

And keep in mind that this is not the biggest promise you’ll ever make. Just the next one.

2. Making Good on the Promise

Between now and next Thanksgiving, the second part of the Giving Challenge will be to do your best to honor what you committed to.

Of course, as with your promise, its fulfilment is personal. Your path, your pace, your process.

One year from today, you’ll be able to look back and see how your promise has grown, from a specific intention to the real world ripple effects of better giving.

Your Challenge for Today

Make one giving promise.
Write it down.
Save it in your notes or calendar.
Put it somewhere you’ll see next Thanksgiving.
Check in with yourself, and chart 365 days of giving growth.

Wishing you a meaningful Thanksgiving,
Avi