There are many new and entertaining ways to help worthy charities. Giving to charities is as quick and easy as clicking your mouse key. For example, if you love animals you can go to the website www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive. By clicking on this site, you give 100% of the donation for the food and care of animals in need. This works because you click and view ads paid for by sponsors. The money from the advertisers goes to the charity partners of the site who provide food and care for animals who have been rescued. If you want to feel as if you have contributed to the world each and every day, you can request a daily reminder. First thing each morning, I make my donations.
My favorite part of this site is that once you are on it you can give food for the hungry, pay for healthcare for a child, help a women in need receive a mammogram, buy books for children in need, and help protect and preserve rainforest habitat. You do all of this from one site! Within a minute, you’ve donated to SIX charities without opening your purse or billfold. You did not even have to put in a credit card number. Of course, if you choose to purchase from the sponsors who give to the worthwhile causes, you may click on their links. Each sponsor donates a percentage of your purchase price to the cause. When it comes time for you to purchase gifts or to buy something you need for yourself, try to remember these sponsors. Although you have spent money at this point, your donation to the charity did not cost you any extra money. You were buying the item anyway.
Another fun and educational way to give to charity is to visit www.freerice.com. Here you are given a vocabulary word and four choices of the definition of the word. Each time you choose the correct answer, you give 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Caution: Each time you get a word correct, they give you a harder one. The good news is if you choose the wrong meaning, you get an easier word. Not only have you helped feed the hungry of the world, you may get smarter, improve yourself in your writing, speaking, grades, and job performance. All this and it is great fun, too!
The American Red Cross is always in need of units of blood. Not only does it not cost you money, you get a free mini health screening. It helps me to monitor my blood pressure and iron count. I have also received free tee shirts, ball caps, aprons, and have registered to win $1000.00 in gas and Atlanta Braves baseball tickets. Okay, so I haven’t won any of those prizes, but somebody did. The real winners are those who received the blood they needed to live and the givers who know how if feels to be helpful to a stranger.
Many worthwhile organizations need a person from your neighborhood to collect money for their cause. (Examples are the Leukemia Society and the March of Dimes.) By walking your neighborhood you get good exercise and may even meet a new friend. (You will have to provide a stamp to mail in the donations, but let us still call this a free charitable gift.)
Many churches sponsor mission projects. Some only consist of helping the elderly or sick by house or yard cleaning. The Baptist WMU organization has a link on their website (www.wmu.com) to World Crafts Village (http://www.worldcraftsvillage.com).
When you purchase WorldCrafts you do spend money as you are merely shopping as you do anywhere else. However, your donation is to help to provide income, improved self-esteem, and hope to artisans living in poverty.
I hope we never forget that there are always those who need our help. Even when times are hard and we do not have extra money to give, we can still be of service. We just need a minute to click, a half hour to walk, or an hour or so to roll up a sleeve. That rolled up sleeve can be for donating blood or raking a yard. It is your choice. Just give!