Why did Black Friday turn the nation into spending crazy maniacs – while 56 per cent of us do not donate regularly to charity? Jayne Woodley, chief executive of Oxfordshire Community Foundation, has her say 

We’ve all heard of Black Friday, but how many of us have heard of Giving Tuesday?

This time last week, millions of people across the globe took part in #GivingTuesday – a day of global giving designed to counteract the excessive consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

That’s great, but how do the numbers involved for each stack up?

It was really positive to see that charitable donations surged a week ago, with JustGiving raising £1.25m in one day.

But on Black Friday, shoppers spent over £1bn in online purchases alone. This stark contrast highlights for me all that is wrong with a society obsessed with stuff, when what I believe the world really needs right now is a lot less stuff and a whole lot more love.

I despaired at the behaviour and retail chaos created by hordes of frenzied shoppers, many of whom actually chose to swap their warm beds to sleep on a pavement for the mere chance of being the first to bag a morning bargain.

How can that be when there are 700 people across Oxfordshire who are homeless and without the luxury of such a choice?

This suggests to me that as a civilised society we are seriously at risk of losing both our hearts and minds, when we can spend so much on stuff in one day alone, yet the average donation to charity is just £14 – with only 44 per cent of the general population choosing to spend their money in this way in a typical month.

I believe this is one of the many challenges we face not only as charities but as a human race – when somehow doing good seems to have been replaced by wanting to look good.

Last month Oxfordshire Community Foundation hosted a debate at the Oxford Union to consider whether it is wrong to spend more on looking good than doing good.

Because the reality is as a nation this is actually what we are currently doing, spending around £70bn a year (or an average of £1,000 per person) on preening ourselves, but only half of this on doing good – whether as charitable donations or volunteering.

As Danny Dorling, one of our speakers against the motion, put it: “A bit of modest spending on ourselves is fine, but if you find that you are spending more on yourself than anything else, then that’s veering towards being narcissistic – and narcissism is a disorder.”

Perhaps this helps to explain why so many of us – in response to distressing recent events happening in the world around us such as the refugee crisis or the air strikes over Syria – seem unwilling to help or are simply unable to respond with love.

Is this the first sign that we are losing our humanity, when we can so easily ignore the needs of others and stigmatise them as something other so that they become less than human?

So with Christmas fast approaching, I am hoping this festive season might inspire us to rebalance our priorities and to acknowledge what our hearts are really feeling despite what our heads might be telling us.

I believe if we were all to do this, we might just revive an old-fashioned but effective concept: the Common Good, where we understand what it means to be human and share a commitment to helping others – not just helping ourselves.

p Jayne Woodley is chief executive at Oxfordshire Community Foundation, a charity that connects donors with dynamic local causes that make change happen.

By giving through the foundation, donors help make grants to a wide range of local charities addressing multiple social problems in Oxfordshire.

To find out more visit oxfordshire.org/giving