Charitable Giving: A Holiday Primer!

Giving: A great holiday tradition!

Guest post by FDL, BSN

My first trip to Walmart since the holiday season began and there it was:  the tripod, red bucket and bell ringer.  I had to smile as I drove slowly past, watching a mother with a toddler in tow stop to let the child drop some coins into the red container.  The Salvation Army bell ringer is as much a part of the holidays as wreaths on doorways.

I was delighted to read that the Salvation Army test-piloted ‘swipe buckets’ for credit and debit cards in 2010 in two cities, and is bringing them back to 30 cities for 2011.

The giving was up 30percent where the swipe buckets were introduced. Naturally, my little berg is not on the ‘swipe bucket list’ so I’ll have to donate with boring old cash, or drop a chicken in the bucket or something…  And I will.

The SA does plenty of good for the people I serve as a public health nurse and for many others in my community.

Not only does my local SA have a food pantry, they also have monetary funds available for special situations….. such as after a house fire.  I have tremendous regard for this organization and encourage others to remember them with their donations.

December is traditionally a time to give.

In fact, the Red Cross receives 20% of their yearly contributions in the period November to December.  Charitable giving seems to be up this year,  according to a recent Red Cross survey of over a thousand adults.

Why does charitable giving increase during the Holiday season?

A lot of folks offer their opinion on this subject.  Here’s mine:

• Holiday spirit:  with the focus on giving, how could you not be reminded?  Seeing kids who won’t have a Christmas without your giving is a great motivator.
• Income tax deductions:  it helps.  We all hate paying taxes, so it’s a win/win.
• Personal deadlines.  It’s the end of the year,  we’ve been procrastinating, but now it’s time to do or die.

So, you decided to give to a charity, how do you decide who is worthy of your hard earned money or time?

What are the best charities?  There actually are large organizations that hold administrative costs down in order to give to the needy.  The federal government does not come to mind. To help you find these groups, there are websites that run the numbers and post the stats.  Charity Navigator has posted a list of the 10 best charities.  I was surprised who made the list and who didn’t:

• MAP International
• Direct Relief International
• The Carter Center
• The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International
• PATH
• Teach for America
• Scholarship America
• National Jewish Health
• Susan G Komen for the Cure
• Opportunity International

Charity Navigator lays out the facts and offers the methodology they used to derive their stats.  As they are asking for donations themselves, I guess they aren’t taking kick-backs.

Giving to groups you are familiar with  is another way, besides online research, to determine if a nonprofit is doing its job.  Serve on local boards, visit and volunteer.  Gifts of time can be as valuable and sometimes even more so than monetary gifts.

Charitable giving in any form is important to me.  In fact, one of my all time favorite poems has a passage that describes my feelings precisely.  The poem is Living, author unknown and the line reads:

To have enough to share- to know the joy of giving;

We’re not talking Bernie Madoff money here, whose financial crash sent several non-profits into demise.  Ours is just small stuff, but it’s our stuff.

Having enough to share is important to us, not knowing where our money goes, even one dollar, matters too.

For that reason, we try to keep our charitable gift giving mostly local.  We are able to have much more control over the use and final destination of our giving.

You may have your own passions and areas you love to support, and that’s what makes the world go round.

Just take a few minutes before writing your gifting checks and be sure the money will do what you want it to do.  Decide what you can cheerfully give, then give a little more.

Reader questions:

What is your favorite charity to give to this time of year?  How do you decide what to put towards your giving each year?  Do you budget it, or give as need and your pocketbook allows? What works best for you?  And are you teaching your kids the importance of giving?

Guest post by FDL, BSN.  (FDL is a public health nurse who loves to save and give away money.  She is a frequent contributor to The Millionaire Nurse Blog.)

{photo credit: Monica’s Dad c.c.}

Don’t forget to:

Follow-Twitter-@DrDeanBurke

Like-Facebook

Circle-Google +

Link to me-at Linked In

Friend-Facebook

Don’t miss anything here-RSS

Newsletter, for special people, with my special mini-e-course on personal finance and my special  free e-book, at no extra charge-cause that’s the kinda guy I am! Don’t you want to be special?

 

 

Tags: charity and the holidays, holiday giving, how to decide which charity is the best, what is the best charity for the holidays

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under personal finance, Quality of Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.