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Exploring the “Hows” of Giving to Help Others
I’m sure we’ve all heard numerous times regarding the importance of giving. Everyone from your pastor to various bloggers have discussed it. I’ve even talked about the importance of giving in the past. ChristianPF is preparing to run a 10 Day Give challenge to inspire others to make it a priority as well. For Christians, the most basic impetus is that God tells us to give and to help others. But all people (ok, most) have a sense that giving to help others is a good thing to do – it’s good for those you are helping obviously, it’s good for the world as a whole, and it’s good for yourself as well. So, we’ve talked about "why" we should give, I’m curious "how" people give.
Large or Small?
Do you give small amounts freely whenever you get the chance? Like dropping $5 at Cold Stone for their Make-A-Wish donations or giving a few bucks for Alex’s Lemonade Stand donations at Rita’s? (we apparently spend a lot of time at dessert type restaurants) Or do you save it up to give only larger donations? If so, is this because you feel there is a greater impact giving significant amounts? Or is it for tax deduction purposes? We tend to do both – more of an emphasis is on larger donations, but we also occasionally give small donations at random times (like at Cold Stone last night) (if using Twitter and Plurk is considered "microblogging", would that be called "micro-donating?")
Directly or through Charitable Orgnizations?
Do you only give to established charities or through organizations? Or do you like to target your giving directly to the people in need? The former seems a lot easier to do and maybe you feel like you can be assured that it will go to better use (as long as you’re comfortable that most of the money is actually getting into the hands of people who need it and not being used for administrative costs). I personally don’t have a lot of experience giving money directly.
Scheduled or Spontaneous?
Do you schedule your giving so that you ensure it gets accomplished? I mentioned earlier that I like to automate as much as possible in my finances and also that I actually have a a special tithe fund to make sure I do not lose track of any money we’ve decided to give. My wife feels that this is somewhat sterile. She thinks there is too much regimentation and process and not enough heartfelt giving. She would like to do more spontaneous giving whether or not we have money allocated in our tithe account to do so. How about you? Do you like to schedule and automate it or just give as you are lead to give? Do you keep close track of how much you give or just give when the opportunity arises?
Why Types of Charitable Organization?
If you do give to charitable organizations, do you typically give to a certain type of organization? For instance, if you are a spiritual person, do you give only (or mostly) to related charities or do you give to secular ones as well. Or, if you are an atheist or agnostic, do you give only to secular charities or do you also give to religious ones that you feel are doing worthwhile work? For our scheduled giving, we typically give to Christian organizations but for our micro-donations we give to all organizations. In the book I’m currently reading, Your Money Counts , the author suggests that Christians should give mostly to Christian organizations. His rationale is that all people give to secular charities while only Christians give to Christian ones. I’m curious if that is true…it probably is.
So what does this all mean?
I’m not really sure what it all means. I’m just curious to see where everyone stands on this. I imagine that most people dabble in a mix of the few options I discussed. Maybe not, maybe I’m the loner who worries about making sure I donate all the money I "said" I would.
I do think we will all agree that helping and giving are two very good things that we can do for each other. And though this post was written in the context of giving financially, giving doesn’t necessarily have to be solely about money. Maybe that should have been another question – do you typically give financially or otherwise? For instance, in the process of starting up this blog, I have been blessed with much help from established bloggers and have learned a great deal and made some new friends. And that certainly was good for the one being helped (me!).
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