It may seem a bit premature to be highlighting an event that’s nearly a year a way, but National Give Day isn’t exactly a holiday yet. GiveForward.org is sponsoring a petition to create the holiday, during which “every person, regardless of age or income level, can have an impact, and collectively, we can have a huge impact.”

Wouldn’t it be cool to have the whole country in on an entire day devoted to just giving is something that everyone can benefit from—except, of course, if it’s giving out black eyes, or unsolicited parenting advice. The purpose of the campaign, according to its sponsor, is to “think of those less fortunate and to make a concerted effort to better our communities.” To add your signature to the petition, click here.

You can even start making plans to have your own day of giving—and it doesn’t have to be on May 10, of course—at your school, work, or neighborhood. There are plenty of things you can do. For example:

• Start an office drive for canned goods, money, personal care items, clothing or other necessities for a homeless, children’s or women’s shelter.
• Designate a day where everyone in your office, family, or neighborhood gets to take a few hours off work—or even a full day—to volunteer for the organization or cause of their choice.
• Host a free car wash (and accept donations) and donate the proceeds to charity. This is a great way to cool off while volunteering as well.
• Have your school hold a walk-a-thon, dance-a-thon, bike-a-thon or other athletic event for charity. You can teach the value of helping others while also teaching how to stay fit.
• For someone’s birthday at the office, instead of contributing for a cake or something he or she may not use, ask everyone to make a donation to his or her favorite cause. Many causes will also send the person an e-certificate or card notifying them of your donation.
• Sponsor a street, park, highway or other area for a team clean-up.
• On our street, we always have an event at least once a month where someone schedules a charity to come and pick up household items to either auction off or use. While our neighborhood rotates between organizations for women, soldiers and children, many organizations have this option. It’s a very easy way to make a difference and also get rid of clutter.

GiveForward.org also has plenty of ways to make a difference, such as raising money for your cause from their website, creating fundraising groups, and learning more about how to raise resources for a cause in general.