This week I thought I would write about ways we can give that aren't the usual cash donations or closet cleaning donation sites. Toward the end of the year I start to gather together all the receipts that show my donation of money and stuff to different charity sites so I am prepared for the upcoming tax season. However, there is one way to donate that I don't do enough of.
The one item that is never taxed but gives immediately, is to give of my time - for some schedules will allow and for others they do not allow. I fall into the latter category but I know that I can make time available on the weekends and my plan for next year is to find two different places to give of my time, whether it is handing out food or swinging a paintbrush hammer.
Because of this, I need to start searching for ways to do that. Of course the easiest way is to just point my index finger and click on those sites that offer to donate money thanks to my time and computer mouse. Why not start there for some easy ways to give of time.
The Breast Cancer site - Click on the "click here to give - it's free" once a day, every day. Each click sends funds to the National Breat Cancer Foundation to pay for free mammograms for those who can't afford it. In Denver it helped over 300 women get mammograms.
The same site, CharityUSA also has other one click giving sites:
The Hunger site - They work with Mercy Corps, Feeding America and Millennium Promise to provide food and food programs for people around America and the world. Each click is equal to 1.1 cups of food to the hungry.
The Animal Rescue site - They partner with The Fund for Animals, the North Shore Animal League and the Petfinder.com Foundation. Each click is equal to .6 bowls of food to rescued animals.
The Rainforest site - They partner with Rainforest2Reef (formerly Friends of Calakmul),Rainforest Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy and World Land Trust-US
The Child Health site - Partnering with the following sites - Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Helen Keller International, Mercy Corps and Prosthetics Outreach Foundation
The Literacy site - They partner with Room to Read and First Book to provide books and teaching materials.
Other sites that use one click ideas are Goodsearch, which you put in the charity you want funds to go to, then search as you would a normal search engine (yahoo, google) and your money (1¢) goes to that charity for each search. Also Care2 click to donate has a one click once a day format that donates to everything from baby seals, oceans and monkeys to children, pets and domestic violence.
If you think your index finger and brain can work together for more than one click you can try these sites to test your educational skills.
FreePoverty - Provides free and clean drinking water through your knowledge of world geographic locations. Currently they do not have a donation partnership. "Due to some unforeseen issues with the organization we previously donated our revenues to, so they could donate water on our behalf (read about it here), we are now looking for a decent non-profit organization to collaborate with FreePoverty and its users."
FreeRice - I love this site and have the banner to it on my site, but it tests your knowledge of English Vocabulary, Foreign Language, Math, Famous Paintings, Geography and Chemical Symbols. For each correct answer a donation of 10 grains of rice is donated by United Nations' World Food Program.
Charitii.com - Tests you on English Vocabulary as well, however you can choose what you want to donate to - grains of wheat to Care, Water to Charity: water, Square inches of rainforest to The Nature Conservatory, Minutes of education to Oaktree Foundation, and points to Philippine Aid Society.
FreeKibble and FreeKibbleKat - These are nice donation sites of 10 pieces of food for pets if you prefer to donate clicks to the four-legged variety. They use the General trivia format to rack up the kibble kernels. Since May 14,2008 to November 18, 2009, freekibble and freekibblekat, have raised over 258,000 lbs. (129 tons!!!) of kibble.
What a fantastic way to give! I never knew about these sites or the power of the mouse! Tnanks!
I just went to the free rice site and ended up donating 1150 grains of rice! This is so cool, everyong should learn a little and give a lot! Thanks, again for the info.
@Hollis
Glad to bring you enjoyment in giving :D