From Election Fray to Giving Day: Missoula Embraces Unity

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - We’ve just come through a bruising election season, and as the nation takes a deep breath, there’s Giving Tuesday in Missoula to help people regain their equilibrium.

I spoke with Susan Hay Patrick, CEO of the Missoula United Way about the importance of Giving Tuesday.

Hay Patrick Contrasts Election Day with Giving Tuesday

“This day is incredibly important in Missoula,” began Hay Patrick. “In a presidential election year where we have just survived a really bruising campaign season, it offers us an opportunity to come together and support causes that make our community so vibrant, so healthy, and a place that we all love, regardless of our political persuasion.”

Nonprofits hope that people who support their favorite candidates will also be generous in supporting the Missoula community.

“In a swing state like Montana, where hundreds of millions of dollars have just been spent on campaigns, it's been really hard for nonprofits to have their voice heard above the rhetoric, and so many local nonprofits are really struggling this year because people just have not been giving,” she said. “People have been waiting, I hope, waiting until after the election, to open their wallets and open their hearts.”

Hay Patrick Encouraged Missoulians to Support the Homeless

Hay Patrick, long a proponent of supporting the homeless, carried that passion into her comments about Giving Tuesday,

“I'm going to start with something that has been getting so much attention in our community, and that is homelessness,” she said. “We have a housing solutions fund because, of course, the answer to homelessness is housing. We have a housing solutions fund that caseworkers can access on behalf of clients to get them into housing or keep them in housing.”

Hay Patrick went on to mention other important nonprofit organizations in Missoula.

She Encouraged Missoulians to Dig Deep and Be Generous on Giving Tuesday

“Find a cause that is close to your heart and your passion, whether it's animals or giving to the Humane Society of Western Montana,” she said. “Whether it's people giving to places that are really helping our most vulnerable neighbors, like the Missoula Food Bank and Community Center, the Poverello Center, the Hope Rescue Mission, whether you love the arts and are giving to Arts Missoula or the Missoula Art Museum or the Zootown Arts Community Center.”

According to the website Cause IQ, there are 1,990 nonprofit organizations in Missoula.