Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Charitable Donations’ Category

For those of you thinking, how can I help, here are a few sites to think about where you can make donations to help out in Haiti:

This list I have shamelessly borrowed from the Canadian Capitalist:

1. Donations through the Canadian Red Cross, which sent $200,000 immediately to support relief efforts, can be made here.
2. Donations to the Salvation Army’s Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund can be made through this website. Salvation Army is also accepting micro-donations of $5 from donors who text HAITI to 45678 from any Rogers or Bell phone.
3. Donations to UNICEF Canada’s Haiti Earthquake relief efforts can be made here.
4. Donations to the Humanitarian Coalition Online comprising Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, Care and Save the Children can be made here.
5. Médecins Sans Frontières Canada is also directing donations to Haiti relief.
6. Michael J. points out that World Vision, which has been on the ground in Haiti for more than 30 years, is accepting donations here.
7. Matt N. says Plan Canada is helping children and families in Haiti. Donations are accepted here.

Help, if you can.

For my regular readers, I am so lazy swamped over the holidays that I am taking some time off and putting up a “Best of” anthology until the New Year (January 4th to be exact). Enjoy two Best of posts a day over the Holidays and have yourself a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Given the nature of this day, in that most of us are either madly panic’ing about whether we have put ourselves sufficiently in debt to impress our loved ones, or we are driving 12 hours in the middle of a blizzard to make it to see our loved ones, here are some Festively themed Best of posts.

Charity as a Present (2009/11/26)

As eyes turn towards the juggernaut coming at us called the Christmas spending orgy (I am thinking of trademarking that phrase), let me reflect on the idea of using Charity as a present….

Click here for the complete Post

Christmas Already? (2009/10/26)

So after wandering through Loblaws and Independant stores near my home, this time of year really is schizophrenic since it is Halowe’en season however, Christmas is here now as well (in fact Christmas almost intervened into Thanksgiving, in fact the Canadian Tire was putting their Christmas section in the Friday before Thanksgiving)…..

Click here for the Complete Post

Holiday Hangover? (2009/01/07)

How goes your holiday hang over? Did you make too merry over the holidays and need to lose some weight? Worse, did you overspend and now have some large credit card bills to pay?…….

Click here for the complete post

As eyes turn towards the juggernaut coming at us called the Christmas spending orgy (I am thinking of trademarking that phrase), let me reflect on the idea of using Charity as a present.

Let me first point out that I feel that I do a fair amount of charitable work, and I do give to charities as well, so as a rule and as a concept I completely support charities and feel their good works are a wonderful thing. I strongly suggest to you, good reader, that you give at this time of the year (and all year round). Remember that giving is not just a monetary thing, many charities would love your skills and time as well, so please remember that as part of your charitable works.

What a Crock of Beans!

Now, for those of you who plan on sending me a card that says something like:

“We thought of you this holiday season and have made a donation to the Human Fund in your name”

let me be very succinct: BULLSHIT (note the Seinfeldian reference).

If you wish to give to Charity, wonderful, I applaud your giving, however, do not believe that your “giving” in any way, shape or form makes me feel more festive because of it. You giving to Charity is not a gift to me. If you don’t want to give me anything this year, that is cool, and you don’t even need a card, just drop me an e-mail something like:

“Dear Scrooge, we didn’t feel like sending you jack this year, enjoy the Holidays you unlikeable so and so”

No, I have not completely gone off my nut, but I am really kind of tired of Pious folks showing me how Good they are by “giving for me”, I give as much as I can, and that is as good as it can be.

If you want to give, please do, but don’t masquerade that it has anything to do with me, thanks. Oh and if you send out a card like that and DO NOT give, Karma and or the wrath of whichever God you worship will get you eventually (isn’t that a Happy Holiday thought as well).

Happy Thanksgiving my American Brother and Cousins

Enjoy your deep friend TurDuckEns and gorge yourself on this Happy Festival day.

Yes it’s that magical time of the year again when we all go into our wallets and splurge like the world might end tomorrow, with little thought of what else we might do with the money.

This documentary portrays the front-line street workers who serve the needy under the umbrella of the Salvation Army. One of the world’s largest social agencies, the Army is a religious institution that serves the practical needs of people first, believing that religion is of no use to anyone who is hungry, homeless and hopeless.

Join filmmaker Rosemary House as she peers into the hearts and minds of people on both sides of the street – those who help, and those who need help. Shot in the streets of Toronto at Christmastime, the film chronicles the small hopes and tiny victories of life lived below the poverty line and the daily rewards for those who work to serve others.

Next time your wander past a Salvation Army Christmas Kettle think about this video:

Stats Canada posted some data that confirmed my guess that Canadians are generous when they donate to charities (one of the reasons I love living in this country).

The statistics show that there is a core of about 25% of folks who give most of the money, but also the most time to these charities, but on a whole, Canadians still are very generous folks (when they can).

Canadians donated a total of $10.0 billion in 2007, up from $8.9 billion in 2004. In 2007, the average donation was $437, compared with $400 in 2004. These increases were not adjusted for inflation.

The total amount of time volunteered through groups and organizations amounted to about 2.1 billion hours, which was equivalent to almost 1.1 million full-time jobs. On average, volunteers contributed 166 hours each.

That’s an important factor for folks to remember as well, that volunteering your time can be just as valuable to any organization. I give money to some charities and I give my time to organizations that want my help (and talents) as best I can (most of the time I have so much fun, I think I am the one getting the most out of the time).

Where does our time and money go?

Where do Canadians Give their Time and Money?

This graph lines up pretty much how I give, where my monetary givings are mostly to my Church whereas my time is given to Recreation activities.

More Interesting: Start Young

According to the survey, people were more likely to volunteer and donate to charities or non-profit organizations later in life if they had participated in a range of community or youth activities during their primary or secondary schooling.

These activities included participating in student government, a religious organization, a youth group such as girl guides or scouts, or an organized team sport.

This data is very useful, and topical for me, as my wife did a talk on the youth stewardship program at our Church and made that exact same point. You need to get kids and teens to understand WHY they should give, and that giving their talents (not just money) is an incredible gift they can give their community. Simply forcing kids to give won’t teach them the importance of the gift (and more likely those kids won’t give later in life either), get them to understand why, and they will gladly give when they are adults.