Giving

Although we should be giving back throughout the year, I know I tend to give at the end of year. Thanks for all who responded to my charity suggestion post – my wife and I have decided where to give this year. We are giving at least $100 to each of the following:

Local Food Bank
Modest Needs
4-H National Council
School Alumni Scholarship Fund

Modest Needs (mentioned before), has found a donor that will match 100% all monthly donations for 2006. So I’m going to start a monthly match in 2006 instead of a lump-sum now.

If you haven’t found a place to give yet, please check them out. Details on the match can be found here (scroll down a bit). The crazy thing is that this was started by one teacher, Keith P. Taylor, who decided to commit 10% of his gross income to this nonprofit he started. He has always and continues to show all money requests and disbursements online in their ledger. He tries to avoid any fraud by paying the bills directly to the company whenever possible. It’s not perfect, but I’ve always been impressed his vision and him following through with it.

Also, be sure to check out CharityNavigator and GuideStar.org (Thanks Beezer) to learn more about the inner workings of any charities you’re looking at. Modest Needs isn’t on there, probably because it is new and also relatively small. It is a 501(c) non-profit, though.

Of course, if you itemize (we currently don’t), you can get tax deductions as well. Whatever the reason, Give!