Year-End Giving 2022
We are excited to kick-start our Year-End Giving with #GivingTuesday, — a day that encourages us to take a moment to pause, versus plunge, into the holiday season ahead. To reflect on what is most needed in our world. And then to embrace the season with a renewed spirit of Generosity and Goodwill. Introducing this year’s motto:
WHO ARE WE - WHAT DO WE DO - What have we achieved
Since 2011, Compassionate Houston has served as an umbrella and a lightning rod for Houstonians with a “Passion for Compassion.” Our mission is to cultivate the compassionate culture of Greater Houston, based on the principles of the Charter for Compassion and its Compassionate Cities/Communities model. We have four specific aims at Compassionate Houston and meet those goals in collaboration with our network of partners, our all-volunteer working Board, (and, increasingly, volunteers), through select educational, collaborative, and compassion-focused programs and projects designed to raise compassionate awareness and spread the message of common humanity. For a description of our four aims, click here.
You might think that’s easier said than done. You might think, what can I do? We are going to show you three ways you can participate during our year-end campaign that will make a difference. Let’s do it!
Three ways to Give Compassion - Are you in?
Take action 1:
fund CIT SCHOLARSHIPS
We believe that
Everyone should have access to a tool that allows them to live their life consistently in accordance with their values with a recognition of common humanity, our fundamental orientation to kindness, and reciprocity. That tool is Compassionate Integrity Training (CIT). Through interactive exercises, group discussions, contemplative practices, and mindful journaling and dialogues, participants cultivate values such as self-compassion, ethical mindfulness, empathy, forgiveness, and gratitude as skills so that we can flourish as individuals and as a society.
Here is Ken Shilling, CIT Spring 2021: “Compassion Integrity Training has helped me heal as a recovering workaholic. I learned how to forgive others from long ago, and to lay those burdens down.” And Katy, Fall 2021: “Your class inspired me to think beyond my comfort zone.”
You can help us
One of our four goals in raising the level of awareness for compassion is to provide and support compassion skills education and practice across our city and the region. And Compassionate Integrity Training (CIT) couldn’t be a better vehicle for what the world needs now - COMPASSION! CIT scholarships change the lives of people who are passionate and curious about developing and expanding compassion in themselves, others, and our society, but lack the financial resources to pay for the course. Our Greater Houston region is full of incredible people who are an opportunity away from making a positive impact, and your donation will provide them a chance to make a difference!
Are you with us?
take action 2:
Support COMPASSIONATE ARTists
We believe that
“The Arts serve an important function, and compassionate artists have a very significant role in our world; when focused on our shared humanity they enable us to “stand in another’s shoes” in empathy. Houston tenor and Compassionate Houston’s luncheon moderator Kenneth Gayle, on the Power of Compassionate Art during this year’s Compassionate Artists of the Year Awards ceremony.
Our compassionate arts committee, made up of two board members and three local artists refined a vision and goal of expanding the ripple effects of compassion in Greater Houston by highlighting and promoting the work of Houston artists who intentionally help us identify with people and situations different from our own. Please take a look at customized posters created by our virtual assistant and explore the artists’ view on the role of compassion in their artistic expression. (Note: scroll to the middle of the page and click on each poster to open up a larger view).
YOU CAN HELP US
The arts committee, who met over a period of five months, selected ten artists from different disciplines who exemplify the diversity of Houston. Support our ambitions to further uplift and bring those local compassionate voices to the forefront through new collaborations and programming in 2023.
Not only will your donation support local compassionate artists in expanding their footprint, but you are also giving a gift to yourself and the Greater Houston community by celebrating the nature and power of human relationships and community, exploring ways to become a better neighbor, celebrating cultural diversity, including empowering Houston area refugee communities. Inspired by compassionate art, we awaken to pressing issues of environmental and social justice and take action on how to better relate to one another, experiencing art as the great unifier and vehicle for life-giving creative expression. Compassionate Art, recasting Houston as a city of a just, compassionate, and multicultural future! (Note: All italic statements are the voices of our ten artists).
LET’S DO THIS!
Take action 3:
Expand Compassion Resources
We believe that
Community engagement can transform communities. Being a part of the social and cultural life of the community makes a huge difference in everyone’s life. Involvement in community activities, lectures, and programs helps people find a sense of purpose, belonging, and contribution, develop new skills, learn about others who are different from us, and empower and integrate people from different backgrounds, all paving the way to working together to create and sustain a healthy and compassionate community.
Compassionate Houston is an umbrella for over 30 nonprofit, faith-based, and other organizations, who, in their very own ways, are committed to communicating a larger message of respect, diversity, inclusion, positive thinking, social justice, volunteer opportunities, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, and human rights.
Here is an example of how we highlight our partner’s commitment to creating a compassionate city.
You can help us!
Compassionate Houston uses various resources, from advertisement campaigns to software to paid personnel, for sourcing, marketing, and promoting compassionate programs and projects in the Greater Houston region. Not only are we an umbrella and amplifier for a unified commitment to compassion in Houston, but we are also innovators, bringing to light new waves of the ripple effect of compassion that can now be focused on in making a difference.
Please help us to shine our light on compassion in Houston! By donating to our marketing efforts, you support the compassionate offerings of all our partner organizations and extended network. With your gift, you contribute to establishing compassion as a driving and motivating force in Greater Houston.
Let's Do This! Let's "overwhelm the world," as theologian Desmond Tuto puts it nicely, and start here in Houston.
Are you in?
Join us for our Year-End-Giving!
With your tax-deductible, year-end gift, you continue Compassionate Houston’s vision and mission of expanding compassion, kindness, and respect in our diverse Houston communities. Let’s make a difference! Let’s support three ways how you can take action, bringing compassion to the world, starting in Houston.
You can conveniently donate via PayPal, Credit or Debit Card on our website here or mail a check (you find our address on our donation page). If you like to designate your donation to a particular action item, please let us know in the notes section of your check or online transaction. If you support all three action items, no note is needed, and we will equally distribute your donation. No matter the amount, everyone can have an impact in support of the Greater Houston community!
With sincere gratitude,
Compassionate Houston’s Board of Directors
“Generosity gives everyone the power to make a positive change in the lives of others and is a fundamental value anyone can act on.””