I’ve fallen out of the habit of giving to charities, which I used to do regularly even when I was struggling to make ends meet. I’d love to add donations back into my budget again soon.
But since my husband and I have cut expenses drastically to try to pay off the rest of our remodel debt, I started thinking about how it might be possible to help a charity without spending any extra money.
That got me reminiscing about how we used to help local animal rescues by acting as a foster home for dogs in need. This was very rewarding, but it also could be extremely demanding — and it wasn’t cheap. (Food, treats and toys add up, and we’d also spring for the occasional vet bill to help the rescues out even more.)
But you also can help your favorite organization for free. Here are three ways you can give your favorite charity something of monetary value without adding even an extra dime to your monthly budget:
1. Use your plastic for the greater good. You don’t need to pull out your card to make a fat donation: Instead, you can give away your perks. For example:
Give a worthy nonprofit a lift with your frequent flyer miles. Most airlines have partnerships with charities that make giving easy, according to The Points Guy. For example, Delta and United Airlines offer the option to donate to various charities. Nonprofits use the miles in different ways. For example, the American Cancer Society provides transportation to cancer treatment for patients and their families, while the Make a Wish Foundation uses miles to help fulfill wishes for kids with life-threatening illnesses.
You also can hand over your credit card rewards points. For example, American Express offers Members Give, which lets cardholders donate points to any nonprofit registered with the program. Discover Giving allows cardholders to donate their points. Check with your card issuer’s points program to see if they have a similar option.
2. Click for a cause. You can “donate” to charity just by surfing the web or playing games. For example, you can use Tab for a Cause, an app that shows banner ads each time you open a new tab online. Tab for a Cause then donates 50 to 90 percent of the ad revenues to charity. Support goes to organizations such as Water.org and Conservation International. To check out a charity’s record, reviews are available at Charity Navigator’s site. Tax-exempt organizations must disclose their finances in publicly available reports. You can review how a charity spends its money by checking those reports on GuideStar.
3. Support charity with your regular shopping. OK, so this technically involves spending money. But I love the idea from SavingAdvice.com to make a purchase of something you’d buy anyway, such as address labels, from a nonprofit. Charity rating group Charity Navigator recommends shopping directly at an online shop run by the charity to give the group the biggest benefit. Many nonprofits have their own shops. For example, Susan G. Komen for the Cure offers ShopKomen.com.
Or, you can use shopping sites that donate a small percentage of your purchase to charity. For example, AmazonSmile gives half of 1 percent of each eligible Amazon.com purchase to your choice of groups such as Doctors Without Borders, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Charity: Water, a group dedicated to making clean drinking water available around the world. When you click on an item, you can see whether it’s eligible for an AmazonSmile donation. DebtRoundUp.com points out that you’d have to spend $1,000 to donate just $50 to charity. But Amazon.com has a huge sales volume, so it doesn’t matter if your donation is small, DebtRoundUp.com argues. I plan to use AmazonSmile when I shop because, well, every little bit counts.
Want to know more about how to donate to charity for free? SavingAdvice.com has some good ideas, such as getting a branded credit card that’s affiliated with a charity you want to support.
While I don’t think these small contributions really replace setting up a monthly monetary donation, they are a great way to give, and feel good about it, even when you’re short on money.