How You Can Help Your Favourite Charity

A lot of the times, people give X amount of money to their favourite charities, and that’s it for another year. Nothing wrong with this – it’s better than not supporting and, like anything, every little helps.

But there are some long-term (and potentially more beneficial) ways you can help. And the best part is, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

Volunteer Your Services

One of the biggest issues for many charities is administrative costs. This is what can turn a $100 donation into a $50 or $60 dollar donation instead. So what if you could offer your services to counter these costs?

• If you’re an accountant, can you help with their tax returns or financial books?
• If you’re a taxi firm, can you offer to take staffers of the charity to the airport?
• If you’re a painter, can you give their offices a fresh lick of paint?

Part of any successful organization is keeping morale up. By taking away the stress of day-to-day stuff, you’d help keep morale up immensely. And you could write off your services as a tax loss (much like you might do with your donation).

Be a Connector

The greatest way for a charity to find more supporters is to know more people. Yeah, I know, I sound kinda dumb and like I’m stating the obvious – but so often we miss the obvious and try to reach for the clever instead, when we don’t need to.

Can you be a connector, and introduce people of influence in your circle of friends and colleagues/connections, who in turn could introduce their friends and connections?

• Do you know people who could offer their services?
• Do you know any local media that may be interested in covering your chosen charity’s story?
• Do you know anyone that can offer meeting space for workshops?
• Can you put smaller charities in touch with organizations that offer grass-roots support?
• Or online – can you help connect with like-minded folks and people that have the charity’s cause close to their hearts?

We often think there’s not a lot we can do for charities except donate. Yet often, even that’s hard to do due to financial circumstance. But time, connections and input can have a far more impactful and longer reach than any donation we could offer.

We just need to think of how we can bring value.

How about you? What ways would you suggest, and what resources have you found useful to help your favourite or local charity?

image: Ready Subjects