Our normal editorial position at Your Car Matters is that anyone talking about Christmas before Thanksgiving should be shot, but we think we have a good reason for breaking our own rule. We’re starting work on our annual Charitable Giving Calendar in order to have it to the printer in time for the Holidays, and we need your nominations for groups you think we should include in it…
Every company has marketing materials to promote itself, and we like ours to be as useful to our clients as possible. We’ve been giving away magnetic calendars for many years, but three years ago we decided to make a wall calendar instead. (Don’t worry, if you’re a 
magnetic calendar die-hard we still produce a few just for you.) While there are many beautiful stock calendars available, getting an item like this off-the-shelf is not the Dwyer way. We set out to find our own idea that would be attractive and interesting, and would involve our clients as well.
Our first solution was a Sellwood Photography calendar in which we asked clients to send their best pictures of our Sellwood neighborhood. We got some spectacular photographs, especially the winning picture of the Christmas Train during a rare Sellwood snowstorm. It worked out well enough, but Tom still thought the theme needed work.
That’s how we came up with the idea for our Charitable Giving Calendar. Our clientele is overwhelmingly socially active and involved with their communities and causes, but not all those causes are well known. We decided our calendar would feature a different worthy non-profit group each month, describing their mission and giving interested people a way to contact them. We asked for nominations, got swamped by responses, and soon had a successful calendar.
This is our third year for the project, and once again we need your help. Is there a non-profit group you support? It can be a group you personally work with or have benefitted from, a group you financially support, or just a group whose message you support. It may be a small group doing good work that you think isn’t getting the attention it deserves. No matter, just tell us which group you think needs to be in our calendar to better change the world.
Either call the shop at 503-230-2300 and tell Charles who you’re rooting for, or send your nominations to TomDwyer@TomDwyer.com. We’ll use our best editorial judgment (biased and flawed though it might be) to determine twelve winners. How can you find out who won? Just stop by the shop in November or December and pick up your FREE copy of the Tom Dwyer Charitable Giving Calendar. And thanks in advance for your help!
