Choosing to Give: How to Make it Count

You may have read about the importance of volunteer work in my previous post “The Value of a Volunteer Hour,” but what if you don’t have much time to give? As a working mother of three, I completely understand that feeling. You may want to give money or other donations. So how do you decide where to donate?

There is a parable often cited in social work, attributed to Loren Eiseley, about a young woman throwing stranded starfish back into the ocean at low tide. An older man comes along and asks why she would do that when she could never save them all – it won’t make any difference. The woman tosses another starfish back into the ocean and replies, “It made a difference to that one.”

I think this is a great way to think about charitable giving as well. We cannot support every organization or solve every problem, but that doesn’t mean our contribution isn’t valuable. The holiday season is approaching, and with it there will be many appeals for help from nonprofits big and small. Every holiday season, my organization mails out letters requesting donations, participates in a community food drive, and volunteers to assist our local Toys for Tots chapter to collect and distribute toys to families in need. My personal recommendation from these experiences is to look for opportunities in your local community, not just focusing on large national nonprofits. There is a special joy in seeing the direct result of your efforts in your community!

Once you’ve researched some organizations that interest you, consider where you want to focus your time or money. There are many schools of thought on how to choose your focus, as described in this Giving Today blog. When deciding where to give, ask yourself three questions:

What matters to me? — What issue or population do I personally care about?
What does my community need? — Is there an organization addressing an issue I see around me?
Where can my contribution have the most impact? — How will the organization actually use my donation?

Most importantly, I hope that you will just give in some way! After spending much of my career working in the nonprofit sector, I have seen firsthand that a donation does not have to be large to be meaningful. You can make a difference to one organization, one family, one child, or one cause. And sometimes, that is exactly where change begins.

I hope you will consider giving back this holiday season and beyond! Do you volunteer, donate money, or participate in events like food drives or adopt-a-family? I’d love to hear what giving back looks like to you. Comment below!