Like a lot fresh-out-of-college kids these days, I left school looking at a distressingly deep debt hole and, despite an impressive sounding degree, few prospects for good work. After facing the obvious realization that having thousands of dollars in credit card debt isn't any way to live, I got budgeting religion. And if you've ever seen the ludicrously massive spreadsheet I keep, you won't question why I call it religion.
Anyway, I've since dug out of the pit and started sleeping well at night, and it occurred to me that I was pretty lucky to be in a position to not absolutely need every dollar that comes in. So last year I made a bucket in my budget for charitable giving. It's usually about $50 a month, which really isn't much, but like they say, every little bit.
The reason I'm telling you this is because this month I don't have any organization in mind to contribute my paltry half-Benjamin (a fat Ulysses just doesn't sound right, does it). The past few have gone to Save the Bay, the Warm Neighbor fund (my bill for our little apartment was $150 last month!), and the RI Food Bank. If you have a favorite cause, tell me about it and I'll send them a check this week.
And if you don't have any suggestions, tell me the group you'd least like to see get a donation.
Every little bit
- February 22nd, 2007
- Posted in Money
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This is a little out of the season for it, but the group I donated to this past christmas was the Child’s Play program run by the guys at penny-arcade.com . A really great program that donates toys to children’s hospitals during the holidays
I realize it’s not curing cancer, but the kids need toys almost as much as they need new and better chemo (almost)
but anyway, my recommendation for a charity to NOT donate to would be anything dedicated to getting this musical back on stage
http://www.buddyciancithemusical.com/
My favorites are Planned Parenthood, NARAL, or the War Resisters Support Campaign (www.resisters.ca) which has helped my cousin Phil since he moved to Canada in order to not be forced into another stint in Iraq even though his 4 years in the army was up.
Nice seeing you at the Warwick P.D. by the way. Lucky for Em she couldn’t make it. That was one draining evening.
Well, I’ve been donating regularly to the UN World Food Program and Oxfam. When I came back from India last December (2005), I was emotionally distressed by the grinding poverty that plagues most of the people in the country. The poverty is worse than anything you could even imagine in the U.S. This isn’t to say that the U.S. doesn’t have poverty, and that poverty in and of itself sucks, just that there are different levels.
Anyway the UN World Food Program works mostly in disaster areas providing food relief to those in need due to wars, displacement, natural disasters, etc. Oxfam is a program which enables rural peasants with the skills, tools, and assets to make more than a subsistence living, tries to establish links so they can sell their goods in fair-trade markets, and defends them from multinational corporations who wish to rape the environment of everything they need to survive.
Peace…. Brian