Charities of Choice (2008 Edition)
Tip It!Every year around this time, my wife and I sit down to figure out our charitable giving. I’ve mentioned in the recent past that times like these can be tough for charities, as monetary giving often dries up. Fortunately, we’ve had a good year, and are planning on increasing our giving this year as compared to last. Here’s a rundown of the main charities to which we’re contributing:
- Our Local Food Bank (Find Yours — My Review)
- Our Local Homeless Shelter (No Review Yet)
- Modest Needs (My Review)
- The American Red Cross (My Review)
- The Conservation Fund (My Review)
- Unicef (No Review Yet)
All but the homeless shelter are holdovers from last year. We chose these because we believe in the work that they’re doing, and they all do a great job of putting our contributions to work. That being said, The American Red Cross has stumbled a bit in recent years, so we’re keeping an eye on them going forward.
As for our kids, who put aside 10% of their allowance for donation to a charity of their choice, two have selected the food bank, one has selected the the Red Cross, and one has selected The Conservation Fund.
Whichever charities you choose to support, I urge you to continue helping them despite the current economic conditions. If you can’t afford monetary support, please consider making non-monetary contributions. And if you’re at a loss as to how to find worthy charities, I encourage you to check out these sites:
Published on December 22nd, 2008 - 6 Comments
Filed under: Charity
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» From the Archives (December 23rd – December 30th)» Charities of Choice 2007
» Charities of Choice 2006, Part III: Our Local Food Bank
» Charities of Choice 2006, Part IV: The Conservation Fund
» Five Ideas for Charitable Giving in a Bad Economy
» Charities of Choice 2006, Part II: The American Red Cross
» Charitable Donations are Down This Year
» Finding the Right Charity
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December 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Giving to good charities is such an important thing to do! The American Red Cross really helped me and my wife when our home was destroyed by a tornado. I’ve donated to them for several years.
I also got the opportunity to donate to Water For People this year. They were the winner of a charity donation giveaway I conducted on my site. Water For People has gotten the highest rating possible for 6 years running from Charity Navigator!
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I’m a huge fan of charity water. (My review is in the link found below in my name) Charity water drills wells for villages, so it turns your dollar into a gift that keeps on giving and saving lives.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
another way to do good in the world is lend money to micro-entrepreneurs, typically 3rd world women supporting their families. You can do this at http://www.kiva.org which has a nifty gift certificate. The recipient gets to decide to whom to loan the money.
Eventually it’s paid back, it can reloaned or redeemed.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Hiya Nickel: you made it to the top half of my list of the top ten tax blog writers. Thought you might appreciate the heads-up.
By the way, I second Betsy’s Kiva suggestion: I gave my mother a Kiva gift certificate for Christmas last year, and she loved it. For people who are dubious about how cost-effective some kinds of charity are, microloans are a fantastic idea.
December 27th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Every year we give to The American Red Cross as well – what a great organization.
This year we also gave to Christian Children’s Fund, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the Environmental Defense Fund.
No matter how much we’re struggling, each year we always give. I think this small act just reminds us that there is always someone who needs help more than we do.
Happy holidays!
~ Jason
August 21st, 2009 at 11:21 am
we are a single parent family in ontario canada
we have a three hundred by five hundred foot garden
we grow our own food
we have ducks chickens geese one beef
one pig
we have bills to pay
want to help someone why not help the individual
instead of giving money to so called charities
why not get involved with someone ONE ON ONE
there is one hundred churches within one hour drive
and many charities and NONE OF THEM HELP US
i raised four children alone without a wife or financial support while she is out having sex with drug addicts
and schezophrenics
but no bailout for us
what is wrong with people
WE DONT USE DRUGS we dont drink
we just want to live and survive
YOU WANT TO HELP SOMEONE HELP US
we give free food to people that come to our garden
and cant pay
so why cant people with money give some free money to people that DONT HAVE ANY
Robert Hillman
R R # 2 Monkton Ontario
Canada
N0K1P0
we need $ 3600.00 just to catch up and stay a family my oldest is 22 has no job
and we cant afford a car or drivers training
for her to be able to EVEN LOOK FOR ONE