|
There are a great deal of ways you can give back to the poor regardless of your income level. Here are some tips on giving to the poor in a variety of ways:
You can donate canned foods and other non-perishables to local food banks in your area. Donating clothes to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or local clothing donation bins is a great way to do a good deed with unneeded clothes in your wardrobe. The best type of clothing to donate is winter clothes like coats, scarves, gloves, and long johns. Also keep an eye out for food/clothes drives at grocery stores, schools, and churches.
Find soup kitchens in your area where you can donate your time to serve food to the homeless. You can also help handing out donated food at a local food bank. Consider volunteering services in your profession for free or an ultra-low cost (legal, medical, construction, etc.). Volunteermatch.com is a great resource that will link you to volunteer opportunities in a variety of fields you can choose from.
Find legitimate charities that provide services to the poor that stir a passion in you. These can be national/international organizations that allocate resources for medical services, housing, counseling, and education among many different services. Good organizations to consider are: The American Red Cross, Habitat For Humanity, Smile Train (cleft palate surgery), and Reading Is Fundamental among many others. Charitynavigator.org is an excellent resource that lists and evaluates a variety of different charities. Searching this website will help you to find the right charity/cause to donate your money.
Look into organizations that provide microfinance services to entrepreneurs in developing countries. These organizations provide microfinancing to individuals with the objective of alleviating poverty in disadvantaged communities overseas. Organizations like Kiva (kiva.org) allow you to provide microloans that are pooled together with other lenders to provide one loan to an entrepreneur that is slowly paid back. On their website you are able to pick the particular borrower by viewing their profile. Trickle Up (trickleup.org) is an organization that gives you the opportunity to donate a desired amount towards a microgrant to individuals or families. These microgrants are also intended to help lift rural families out of poverty in developing countries.
Note: Some microfinance organizations function for-profit. Research any organization you come across to make sure they don’t apply excessive interest rates to the microloans they provide.
|
