The Philanthropic Family

During this time of financial turmoil, few of us are writing checks with the same frequency and the same number of zeroes as when we feel secure in our jobs and flush in our retirement accounts.  So if you can’t give money, that doesn’t mean you can’t still be charitable.

What Are Your Assets?

If philanthropy is a way of life, writing checks is actually a small part of your overall giving.  Remember, you have great assets beyond the financial: your time, your talents, your networks, your enthusiasm, your help spreading the word–all these together can be more powerful that your money.  Read on for more ideas.

!0. Conserve Resources

If you want to promote energy independence and reduce your carbon footprint, make the changes in your lifestyle that conserve resources and reduce emissions. Turn off the lights you aren’t using and finally make the switch to energy-saving bulbs. Take a shorter shower. Turn off your computer monitor when you aren’t using it. Get serious about remembering those re-usable shopping bags every time you go to the store (keep them in your car). Invest a few bucks in a reusable water bottle and finally stop buying bottled water (we fill water bottles halfway and freeze them on their side. When headed out, we fill the bottles the rest of the way with water and bring them along, the frozen part will slowly melt and keep it cold as you drink).  Write family members’ names on the same cup (thanks, Bill Pinter for this idea) and use them all day rather than getting a new cup every time. Turn off the water when brushing your teeth. 

9. Donate stuff

As you switch the clothes this fall, there will surely be items that are too small. Charities with thrift stores sell the items to raise cash (and sometimes with a dual purpose to employ members of their client community). Day cares and churches are often in need of donations of clothing as well.  Hospitals may welcome your stuffed animals and children’s books. That bridesmaid’s dress that you’ll never wear again could become someone’s prom dress if you donate it to a charity like The Glass Slipper Project.

8. Spend Gift Money on Charity

You were planning to give something to your nephew for his birthday anyway.  Instead of sending cash, send a charitable donation in his name.  Or send him a gift certificate to choose his own recipient.  See my previous posts on Charity Gift Certificates and Philanthropic Mother’s Day Gifts for more ideas.

7. Volunteer Your Time

According to VolunteerMatch, the average value of volunteer labor is over $18/hour.  Help around the office, drive to pick up donated items, become a museum docent or a classroom parent, serve in the soup kitchen, or if you really want to go for it, join the board.  These volunteer activities are not only fulfilling for you, they are a lifeline for the charities you care about.  And for the most part, they don’t cost you anything but your time.

6. Volunteer Your Talents

If you’re Internet-savvy, could you help your favorite nonprofit build a web presence or create a Twitter feed? Are you a writer who could help with articles for the next newsletter?  Are you an artist or graphic designer who could design a logo? Are you an accountant who could help with some bookkeeping? Are you a sewer who could make quilts or blankets or knit caps to comfort babies (and their families) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit?

5. Use Your Entertainment Budget to Join the Zoo or the Museum

Your entertainment dollars can support charity, too.  Instead of going to the mall on weekends, we joined the Brookfield Zoo here in Chicago, managed by the Chicago Zoological Society.  Those dollars support conservation efforts around the world and provide many weekends of entertainment for us.  You could also join the museum and get unlimited access to exhibitions and reduced rates on classes.  I also like to think that the significant overdue fines we are paying our library because “Merry Christmas Stinky Face” was hidden under a pillow for two weeks counts as a sort of contribution. 

4. Join the 29-Day Giving Challenge

If you ever needed proof that giving doesn’t have to cost money, this community will provide it.  Members of the 29-Day Giving Challenge community commit to give a gift each day for 29 days and many chronicle their gives on the site.  I guarantee you will be inspired by the people working to make giving and gratitude a daily habit.

3. Find a Social Action

“Social Actions connects individuals with opportunities to take action in an effort to increase the scope and impact of the citizen sector.” They accomplish this by aggregating 30 sites that have individual opportunties to contribute to a cause, including Donors Choose, volunteermatch, idealist.org, change.org and kiva.org.  If you are looking for ideas, you can search for social actions by location, cause or keyword.  This platform is still developing, but I see a lot of potential here.   

2. Vote in your Local Elections

I assume you’re planning to vote in the presidential election, so you’ll already be standing there in the booth. But after voting at the top of the ballot, if you’re anything like me you scan the rest of the ballot with a mixture of ignorance and embarrassment.  Surely some local zoning boards, planning commissions, judges and other elected officials are going to affect the hopes and plans of your favorite causes. Become educated about the issues and vote for candidates that further your vision for your community.

1. Be the Change You Want to See in the World.

You’ve seen those car commercials that have people who receive a kindness passing it along. Random acts of kindness for strangers. What a great thought that every time you do something unexpected and unrewarded, you may be starting one of those chains as people pay the kindness forward throughout their day. 

Without spending one dime, we can all make others feel welcome in our meetings and our conversations and our communities, be patient with cars slow to move after the light turns green, hold the elevator door for someone running late and let someone with only a few items go ahead of us in line. These small things are what we call being “gracious,” or “charitable.” To truly be charitable, we don’t have to give our money so much as we have to give of ourselves.