Here's a set of questions you probably haven't considered lately: How do you decide to give money away? How do you pick an organization to support? How do you determine how much you'll give? Do you have to "find" the money to give or do you plan for it? And if you do plan for it, how do you do that?
We plan giving into our budget just like any other "expense". The same way we have line item amounts set for food, clothing, car maintenance, and the like, we have a set amount we plan on giving. A certain portion is allocated to go to our church, and the rest is set for us to give away throughout the year as opportunities come up. It's especially a blast deciding how to give this second amount away as there are so many worthy charities to consider and once we decide we always feel like we're really helping people. It's truly a feeling that money can't buy.
So how do you handle giving? Share it with us all in the comments below -- I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
It's funny that you mention it, because I just did a post on giving just now.
http://franksatheisticramblings.blogspot.com/2006/03/charitable-giving-and-atheist.html
Posted by: frank | March 08, 2006 at 12:36 PM
My spouse wants to make several categories and allocate percentages of our donations to each category (women's rights, environment, anti-racist work, disaster relief, etc). Me? I just want to write a check whenever I come across an organization that inspires me and feel like I can spare the $$. At the moment we keep a file of organizations we're potentially going to give to, and some time in the next year or so we'll probably have a discussion about the categories my honey is so keen on. There are a few regulars (our local public radio station, for example).
We allocate 10% of windfalls to a special account for donations, but don't include it in our regular budget.
Posted by: claire | March 08, 2006 at 12:47 PM
Never.
Posted by: | March 08, 2006 at 05:14 PM
I'm surprised by how many of my friends don't plan for a giving budget the way they do for investing; they just give opportunistically.
That's fun, but at the end of the year you may find you gave more to your neighbor's Girl Scout troop than to Doctors Without Borders, not because Girls Scouts are more important to you, but because you didn't plan!
Posted by: brooklynchick | August 28, 2008 at 01:57 PM
P.S. For those of us on tight budgets, one tactic I use is to set up a recurring donation (say $20/month) that gets automatically deducted from my checking account. Then at years end I've given a sizable gift but the costs were spread out.
Posted by: brooklynchick | August 28, 2008 at 01:58 PM