Year-End Giving Tips

If your mailbox looks anything like mine these days, bursting with envelopes (and emails) from dozens of charitable organizations, you know that this is the time of year many nonprofits depend upon for year-end donations. While we may bemoan the onslaught of solicitations, they are a means to an important end – without year-end giving, many nonprofits would not be able to feed the hungry, care for the aged, delight our senses through the arts, educate our children, defend our rights, or carry out other work that enriches and inspires us.

Choosing which causes or organizations to support, or even choosing whether or not to give at all, can feel overwhelming. Here are a few tips and questions that can guide your thinking about year-end giving:

1.     What brought you the most joy this year?

2.     Can you choose 2-3 priority areas for your giving this year (e.g. hunger and homelessness, visual arts, helping the elderly)? That does not mean that you cannot give to other things, as well. It just means that you can give most of your donations to these priority causes, and give smaller amounts to other causes.

3.     What charities did you donate to last year? Did you get updates from those charities this year? Are they still doing good work?

4.     How do you define your “community”? Is it geographic? Religious? Based on personal interests or passions? Based on people in your networks? All of the above? Can you align your giving to support your community/communities, however you define them?

5.     Are their clothes or household items you can donate this year?

6.     What did you spend on buying coffee this year? (Or ice cream? Or pizza? Or sandwiches?) Once you come up with a rough estimate of that amount, compare it to the amount you plan to donate to worthy causes this year.

7.     Did you need help this year? Did any nonprofits provide you (or your friends or family) with assistance?

8.     What sorts of causes do you want to give to? Basic needs (like food and shelter), social services (like job training or mental health counseling), the arts, the environment, education... Do you want to focus on one area or spread your donations among various causes?

9.     Does your family have a tradition of giving to certain causes? Do you want to start a tradition?

10. Is there someone’s memory whom you would like to honor with your charitable giving? How can you best honor them?

11. Do you want to pool your donations with friends or family to make a bigger impact?

12. Do you volunteer somewhere? Would you consider making a donation to the place where you volunteer?

13. Were there stories in the news this year that really touched you? Or concerned you? Or inspired you? Are there charitable causes that are aligned with those stories?

14. Are their services you use frequently, such as public broadcasting, that rely on donations to keep doing what they are doing?

15. Was there a play, a concert, an exhibition, or another cultural experience that lifted your spirits or made you think this year? Would you consider supporting the organization or venue that made it happen?

16. If you have children or grandchildren, can you support an organization that supported their growth, so that other children can learn and grow, too?

17. Why give?

Of course, there are no right or wrong answers to these questions – they are simply guidelines to inform your thinking, either now or year-round. No matter what choices you make, the choice to give is always a good one, no matter how much (or little) you are able to give. I hope your giving choices bring joy to you and to others.

So many causes, so little time

I am delighted to be featured in this week's edition of the Washington Jewish Week, as part of their annual Charitable Giving Guide.

The article in which I am interviewed, To which causes to give - and how much, focuses on ways to make choices about your charitable giving when lots of people are asking (for example, "Hey, I'm doing the breast cancer walk"... "Lauren, can you come to this casino night to benefit my kids' school?"... "Hey Lauren, I'm shaving my head to support children's cancer research). And yes, that last one is a real world example.

In a nutshell, I think it's all about narrowing down to a few priorities each year - I suggest three - and making sure that those priorities remain at the top of your giving list. You can still give to something that's outside of your priority areas, but you can set a lower amount to give to those causes. Then you can say to your friend who is shaving his head, "Wow, that's amazing! I'm happy to support your efforts. Your causes isn't one of my top three causes for this year, so it won't be one of my top contributions, but I want to be a part of what your doing and help those kids. So please accept my contribution, and thanks for including me in this!"

Read more HERE.

It's more fun to do it as a group...

The Washington Post's On Giving section has an article describing Giving Circles, which are pooled donation funds that choose various causes to support. Some giving circles are more complicated, with lots of rules, guidelines, and minimum gifts per member, while others are more informal gatherings of friends. Giving circles can be a great way to maximize your charitable giving - getting more "bang for your charitable buck" while having meaningful conversations about your values, priorities, and interests. Have you taken part in a giving circle?

What's the season about again?

"Tonight's the night we'll make history... honey you, and ... my year-end charitable gift contributions for 2011." (OK, I'm a child of the 70s. You get extra points in my book if you know that musical reference.)

Yes, I'm one of those people who makes a few contributions throughout the year, but really takes a look at the whole giving picture each December and decides how to divvy up my contributions. How do I make my decisions?

(1) What are my top three charitable giving priorities, and are my gifts aligning with these priorities? My priorities for this year are: cancer-related causes, local hunger and homelessness causes, and the youth group for which I serve as a Board member. I'll give to other things, as well, but these three priorities get the biggest piece of the pie.

(2) How did my business do this year, compared to last year? Do I have as much (or, hopefully, more) to give away? How do my expenses compare from last year to this year, and are there big expenses coming up in the first quarter of 2012? Can I at least match, if not exceed, last year's giving?

(3) I keep a spreadsheet of each year's charitable giving, and I keep a file folder right next to my desk where I keep all of the mail solicitations that I receive throughout the year, as well as items I have read in magazines, newspapers, etc. I look over the list of what I gave to last year to decide if I want to give to them again, and I look at the mailings and clippings to see if I want to add any new charities to the mix.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not giving away bajillions of dollars here! But I like to have a focused approach, and I like to keep my priorities and intentions in mind when making these decisions.

"The Best of Times!"

How will you be GIVING?

There are lots and lots of ways to put the GIVE back into Thanksgiving. Even if you didn't sign up to serve food at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving, you can still find ways to give back on the holiday - no planning required. For example:

* Make an online donation to a local food bank or soup kitchen.
* Pick up trash at a park or stream.
* Check in on an elderly neighbor or friend.
* Go through your closets and gather gently used clothes to donate - drop them off at one of those parking lot donation bins.
* Ask everyone at your Thanksgiving table to name their favorite charity - email the list with URLs out to everyone that night or the next morning.
* Put leftover cans, disposable metal tins, and paper goods in the RECYCLING instead of the trash.
* Are you driving somewhere tomorrow? Just for kicks, drive at the speed limit, and let someone merge into your lane, for Pete's sake. Safer driving helps EVERYONE.
* Say thank you to someone. Especially someone who does not expect it.
* Go through your bookshelves and gather a few books, in good condition, to donate to your local library.

I need a 10th item for this list. Any suggestions?

Can you hear the teeth rotting?

In honor of Halloween, the awesomely-fun-yet-dentally-nightmarish holiday, how about making a gift to the Children's Dental Health Project, an organization dedicated to bringing high quality oral healthcare to every child in America. Thanks to CDHP's and its partners' efforts, as many as 10 million kids have gotten dental insurance; many of these kids are from poor families who otherwise could never afford oral health care.

How about donating a dollar for every piece of candy you give to a kid tonight? You can donate to CDHP HERE.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

TSF's night out!

One of my favorite non-profits (OK, full disclosure - I'm on the steering committee!), the Tranquil Space Foundation, had it's 5th annual fundraiser earlier this month. We shared stories from some of our grantees and raised funds to support programs for women and girls. Check out photos and videos from the TSF celebration HERE.

Can this cup change America? (more than it already has...)

Have you heard? Starbucks is teaming up with the Opportunity Finance Network in the Create Jobs for U.S.A. program. The program "will provide capital grants to select Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). The CDFIs will provide financing to underserved community businesses which include small business loans, community center financing, housing project financing and microfinance."

You can donate at your local Starbucks or online starting on November 1. And no, I am not getting any free mochas from Starbucks for writing about this! I just like the idea of a big American company helping small American businesses. Microfinance right here at home.

(of course, Kiva does this, as well, but most of their work is outside of the US... Do you know of other ways that Everyday Joe's like you and me can make donations to support small businesses? In addition to "buying American"?)

Giving to Alabama

I just made a donation to the Mid Alabama Region American Red Cross, to help the victims of the recent tornadoes.

Join me! It'll feel good. I promise.

Wanna know what happens to a girl living in poverty when she reaches the age of 12?

To find out, watch this amazing video from The Girl Effect, a project sponsored by the Nike Foundation, in partnership with The United Nations Foundation and the Coalition for Adolescent Girls. You can also connect w/ The Girl Effect on Facebook.

Don't forget to watch the video HERE.

The next time I complain about my life, please remind me to be grateful that I was born into a middle class family in the United States...

Recession Obsession Sale

Times are tough at America's non-profits. Donations are down, and, at many charitable organizations, the need for their services is up. To help non-profits through the crunch, I'm offering a 30% discount on "Grant Writing Quick Tips" - a focused, finely-tuned e-book that offers all of the highlights of a foundation relations and grant writing seminar in one, high-impact resource.

From tips to help your grant proposal stand out from the pack, to guidelines and a worksheet on proposal budgeting, to strategies for finding and keeping donors, "Grant Writing Quick Tips" is a great resource for any non-profit organization (or a great gift for your favorite charity).

Check it out HERE.

I'd rather be Bronze than Silver

The Washington Post's always-interesting "Department of Human Behavior" column has a great article today called "Happiness on the Medal Stand? It's as Simple as 1-3-2." Basically, the article notes that people who win Bronze medals at the Olympics tend to be much happier than the people who win Silver. The Silver medalists are caught up in "if only..." thinking (e.g. "If only I'd gone a little faster... jumped a little higher... tried a little harder"), while the Bronze medalists are just happy and grateful to be on the medal stand. In one study of Judo competitors, researchers found that Silver medalists were about as happy as those athletes in 5th place, while the Bronze medalists were about as happy as those who had won the gold.

Of course, this spills over into the life of us mere mortals, as well. So many of our moments of unhappiness come when we jump into "if only..." thinking: if only I had that job, that house, that spouse, those kids, that body, that money...

All of those self-help gurus who tell us that gratitude is a key to happiness aren't as cliche as we might think. This is where philanthropy and volunteering can come in. If you are not a person who automatically thinks about how lucky you are to have what you have, volunteering with those in need can really put things in perspective.

When I was volunteering at Georgetown Hospital last week, one of the cancer patients I was talking to said "My wish for you is that you never have to be at this hospital like the rest of us (fighting cancer)."

I'll take a Bronze medal any day.