Charity Begins at Home

Since 2001 I have set up a budget for myself, in terms of monetary donations to charitable organizations. I've written of this before, a couple years ago I think. My actions kind of petered out mid-2005 but an article in Sunday's paper got my attention. I want to do this again.

Every month I donate $10 to wherever I want. I've had the most fun figuring out where to give my money. (It also helps me know my limits in how much I can afford to donate per year. And Suze Orman says it's good karma to keep money flowing in and out.)

This article is the one that got my attention Sunday, about this woman who fosters and places tiny kittens in new homes. Now admittedly, this thing has a huge awww factor - but she's doing incredible, time-consuming work. Our newspaper frequently features individuals doing great work and that's what I'm going to focus on this year - keeping my dollars local, preferably for "the little guy". At first I just saw the phone number the reporter gave if one wanted to help. Upon closer inspection, I see this woman has set up a website, which puts me on much more familiar territory. (I'm not a big phone person.) On her wishlist page, she offers PayPal donations. Perfect - fast, easy and a push of the button.

As I've mentioned, Mom, Dad, Gretchen and I made part of our Christmas gift to each other this year, a charitable donation. It worked out really well, we all really enjoyed it. I printed up a little slip of paper for each of them and put it in a handmade envelope. I split my donation up between three charities that I knew were meaningful to each of them. Dad loves The Heifer Organization for it's hand-up, not hand-out policy. Mom is very fond of Habitat for Humanity and I know they've been doing a lot of work for the people of the gulf coast. And Gretchen and I love our pets, so my donation in honor of her was to our local humane society, Lollypop Farm. They are an excellent organization that has also been doing a lot of work with animal rescue in the gulf coast.

Gretchen had not yet made all of her donation because she was still thinking about where she wanted to do this. Here comes my point. She wanted to give something tangible to some place local, not just money. She mentioned a youth organization that promotes fitness and boxing I think. She wanted to give hand wraps and whatever else they needed, to really be connected to this place, not just write an easy check.

That really stuck with me, what she said. I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House for 9 years and since I left there, have never really found an outlet for my volunteering. Part of that is that my life has changed since then. There are only so many hours in the day and so much energy available. I have Steve and Simon in my life, we bought a house, I got a promotion at work and I devote a whole lot of time to developing Pine Tree Designs.

I'm really rambling now but another point is I've always thought it would be cool if the company I work for could align itself for one non-profit for a full year - or more. And do more than hold fundraisers, though those are important too. I'd like to see us fulfill wishlists. I've thought about this for years but have hesitated because, I don't know why, because I wasn't sure I could adequately devote enough time to it. And probably more to the point, I don't feel like I'm a joiner anymore. I worked with Habitat for Humanity for one day, building a house. Not my thing. If I could have painted or done inside finish work, tasks I'm better suited to - but that work is mostly done by the families for their sweat equity. (I did volunteer for a year at the office of the Wayne County Habitat for Humanity. It didn't suit me either unfortunately - very small, very outdated, inefficient office. Sounds petty, doesn't it? Just not the right fit at the time.)

I'm going to give this some more thought. One of the things I worry about is intruding in fellow employees time - maybe they have their own volunteer work they do. But you know what? This doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition, does it? When I figure out the right thing, we could just do the best we do. Something is better than nothing.

I've got some thinking to do.