Yet,
despite the long history of giving, many people today do not donate to any
cause for various reasons. It may be that they are unsure how to navigate the
vast array of organizations and causes, or that they are hesitant about how
their money will be used, or simply they don’t realize what benefit it has on
others.
As
Aristotle said:
“To give
away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to
give it, and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in
every man’s power nor an easy matter.”
Giving is
easy, but why and where to give are difficult questions to answer. Listed below
are five great reasons why people should give to charity. Deciding where
and how much is a personal decision, but there is not much to argue with when
it comes to why. In fact, with Americans donating $335.17 billion in 2013 there
seems to be some very good reasons for donating.
1.
Sense of Purpose
Giving to
charity helps you participate in a cause you feel strongly about. Even if you
don’t have the time to volunteer, charitable gifts go a long way in helping
organizations operate and impact those they help.
In
addition, studies show that people who give to charity are happier people. So
when faced with the decision of whether to buy an unneeded new pair of shoes or
donate that money to a cause, choose the cause. You may not get new shoes, but
you’ll be much happier in the long run.
2. You
can make a difference
While it may
seem that a small donation won’t make a big difference, however even small
gifts can have a big impact.
For
instance, through programs like Kiva, a nonprofit micro-lender, individuals can
loan as little as $25 to help impoverished, would-be entrepreneurs in the
developing world start a small business. Many of these people do not have
access to a strong banking sector so these loans provide are a great method of
empowerment.
To date
Kiva has had 860,000 individual lenders participate and has a 99 percent loan
payback rate.
3.
Donations are often tax-deductible
Giving to
money to most charitable organizations has the added benefit of being tax
deductible. There are approximately 1, 536,084 charitable organizations in the
U.S. according to 2013 data, which means that are plenty of places for people
to give.
What does
this mean in concrete terms? If someone were to give $100 to a tax-exempt
organization of their choice, the donation may actually only turn out to be $65
or less due to tax refunds. The donation not only benefits the organization,
but also the individual giving.
4.
Matching Gifts can have a big impact
A great
way to give to charity is to find an organization or corporation that will do a
matching gift. Matching gifts are when a company will match dollar-for-dollar
what their employee gives; maximizing the impact of the gift as well as
creating a positive image for the company.
Corporations
like General Electric, Gap Inc., Boeing, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Johnson
& Johnson and Microsoft all offer some of the best employee matching gift
programs.
5.
Create a budget, plan ahead
Whether
its $25 or $2500, donations are possible from every budget. Plan a charity
budget that allows for a donation each year. Even two percent of your
yearly income can make a big difference. For someone making $30,000, that could
be around $500 – all of which can be deductible!
Before
giving to charity, be sure to do research. Numerous websites exist to help
potential donors find out what organizations are most legitimate and what cause
they think could benefit most. Like all things in life, research will not only
make potential donors better informed, but will also maximize the impact for
each donation.
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