The first question is: where do you make your donation? What kind of cause do you want to support? Think about this. There are so many out there. You can choose your favorite one, or if you are so inclined, you can make a donation to more than one group. Consider also what it is that you have to donate.
Habitat for Humanity International is a nice place to donate to. They help families to get decent homes. Poverty housing or no housing at all is dismal. You can help Habitat for Humanity give good shelter to families. You can donate online; go to www.habitat.org/donation/ to help. On their main web page you can also donate to “Gifts from the heart” to honor or remember someone. Hope Builders is here too. There is a monthly giving program for a minimum of just $5 a month, which will go toward ending poverty housing. You can also donate by mail to Habitat for Humanity with a check or credit cart.
Another donation idea is clothes. You can clean your closet. Get rid of clothes or shoes that may no longer fit you. The homeless and low-income families need clothes, especially during the cold time of the year. Formal clothes help because people need to go on job interviews. Be sure that your donation consists of clean wrinkle-free clothes. Put them on hangers if you can. Find out how to make a difference with your old clothes by visiting CharityGuide.org.
The Salvation Army picks up clothes and household items to help these families. From the CharityGuide.org site, click on The Salvation Army link and a map of America appears. You click on your state to make a non-monetary donation. Examples include clothing or furniture. I clicked on a state and got taken to a page with helpful links. I could click on “donate for pickup” (an easy way to make your donation and clean out your closet), “my pickups” where you can see your estimated pickup time of a pickup or change one, or print a receipt for a completed pickup.
Goodwill is another good place to donate. They have a lot of stores and fund career training and employment programs to help people toward becoming self-sufficient. Click on the link provided by CharityGuide.org and search for a Goodwill store in your area by putting in your zip code. As they say, “A gift to Goodwill helps people earn their own way.” If you give a donation to them in the form of cash, it is tax-deductible.
A clothing or household donation to a Big Brother Big Sister Foundation will help them to serve kids. They can pick up items from your house. You get a tax deduction for the fair market value. They sell these items at consignment shops to support their agencies. You can also donate your car or boat if it is just cluttering up your garage.
You are doing the right thing by making a donation. Find the place that matters most to you.
By Laura Hogg