Last week, I wrote about how I eat many of my meals standing up because I have a two-year-old. She’s the same two-year-old I drop off at a 2s program each week with a lump in my throat.

I know your heartbreak, rage and disgust over Uvalde—and the 26 other school shootings that have taken place just this year—is reaching a level that’s hard to articulate. So is mine. Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about this week that I thought I’d share.

First, a reminder that what we do as individuals and small businesses matters:

• In 2020—the year of COVID, when job loss was the worst it’s been since 1937—giving by individuals totaled an estimated $324.10 billion. Eighty percent of all donations to charities and nonprofit organizations in the US still came from individuals.
• Small businesses donate roughly 250% more than larger businesses to local nonprofits and community causes.
  

Second, in moments where everything gets big—the need for immediate change, our grief and anger alongside it—we simplify. We get clear about:

• The problem(s) we most want to solve
• Where our skills, resources and platform can be best put to use solving that problem
  
  

This will look different for everyone: Steve Kerr using his pre-game press conference to plead with senators; child psychologist Dr. Becky sharing scripts for how to talk to kids about hard things; professionals, activists and business owners sharing gun reform organizations like Moms Demand Action, Giffords, March for Our Lives, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and The States Project and ways to help the Uvalde community like here and here.

If you feel like you might be sharing resources people have already seen, remember that the foundational principle of good PR is that awareness drives action which drives change. There are millions of heartbroken people looking for ways to get involved—you don’t know who might be inspired to donate or call their senator’s office because of a resource you’ve passed along. (Every organization I donated to this week came through the recommendations of business owners and activists I follow. It all ripples out; it all matters.)

Finally, for those concerned about wading into politics, around this event or others, remember that politics is just groups of people who share a values system and worldview, fighting for laws and regulations that protect that values system and worldview. It has always been, and will be, political. You don’t need to tell people who you vote for, but we all need to speak more openly, and with conviction, about the change we demand to see for our kids and what we’re willing to do and sacrifice to get there.

We cannot be cause and purpose-driven people or cause and purpose-driven business owners and not show up for the injustices we see.