Charitable Giving

Sometimes I wonder whether it's rude to just start writing a post without saying so much as a hello. Hey folks, what've ya been up to? Life's grand, cheers?

Anyhow. I just finished reading an article called "How to Give Like a Billionaire" by Dan Kadlec, published in the special outlook issue of MONEY magazine in December 2010. Dennis and I were on our way to Northern Michigan, USA, and I had stopped at an airport book store to pick up something to read. I ended up an issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance and aforementioned special outlook issue of Money. (As a side note, it is not unusual for me to buy a magazine somewhere, sometime, and only end up reading it a LOT later).

I was very impressed with Kiplinger's, liked their personal tone, broad range of financial topics, while using a language that was easy to understand for newbies. I was already regretting that we were living in Germany when I saw that their 1-year subscription only costs $12!! In our case plus $17 for shipping, but I was sold. We've been subscribed since November of last year and I am looking forward to each new issue.

With Money Magazine, it took me ages to actually read the issue. They have a lot more ads in the paper, but the content is pretty good as well. And to circle back to the beginning of this post, that was where I read the article on giving like a billionaire.

7 Principles:
Billionaires... concentrate on a few key causes.
You... can write bigger checks to fewer charities.
Billionaires... are businesslike about giving.
You... should plan out your giving for the year and take time to research charities.
Billionaires... take their wealthy pals on a weekend retreat and hit them up for pledges.
You... can round up your like-minded friends and pool your charitable resources.
Billionaires... establish lasting legacies.
You... can benefit by working giving into your estate planning.
Billionaires... donate the fruits of their wealth.
You... can give away highly appreciated assets.
Billionaires... have fancy foundations.
You... can open a donor-advised fund to spread your giving over time.
Billionaires... sit on non-profit boards.
You... can give your time to your favorite cause.

To read the entire article, go here.

So I figure I'm on a pretty good path here:
I don't have billions to give away yet, but I am making plans on what to give this year (check).
I am researching charities to choose one whose cause I can identify with (check).
Since I don't have heaps of money, I am planning on giving my time (check).
Conclusion: Sounds like a plan to me (pad self on the back).

To help out with (check) #2, the author of the article was friendly enough to list a number of links that I hope will turn out to be helpful:

- charitynavigator.org: lists information on more than 5,500 charitable organizations, with star ratings, financial health, and efficiency with donor funds

- Guidestar.org: has tax information on more than 1.8 million US charities to see where your money is going

- DonorsChoose.org: helps you find projects that you can fully fund, such as buying a drum set for a school band

There is even a note of a subsidiary of eBay's, called Giving Works - apparently it works just as ebay itself does, but no listing fees and commissions need to be paid as long as you agree to donate all of the sale proceeds to one of 18.000 charities. I'm slightly shocked that I've never heard of this before.

The only thing that I didn't find additional information on in the article is where a good place to start looking for volunteer opportunities would be. But then again, I will probably just have to ask that question.

Time to think about giving back! :o):)