5 Ways to Give Help Without Giving Cash

What are you giving this Christmas Season?

The holiday season – which also coincides with the end of the tax year – is a great time to donate to worthy organizations.  But if your wallet is a little leaner, don’t fret.  There are many ways to donate cash-free!

Consider these top 5 ways to give help without giving cash:

1.  Give Supplies or Your Valuable Time. Sometimes donating the very items that nonprofit organizations need, rather than cash, is more rewarding.  For example, bringing in dog food to a shelter lets you know that your gift will directly help!  Maybe you have extra airline miles that can be given to the Make a Wish Foundation.  Perhaps you are a bookkeeper who can help balance the ledger for a struggling soup kitchen.  When you donate directly, you cut out the middleman, which usually means that more ends up in the hands of the organization!

2.  Use donation sites when you shop online.  You are already going to make a purchase, right?  Why not use donation sites like iGive.com, which includes many retailers, including giants like Amazon.com and Overstock.com?  Simply go to iGive to set up a free account and designate your favorite charity (we give to the Boy Scouts of America).  Then, when the holidays arrive or you need to shop for a birthday, go through the retailesr on iGive and a portion of your purchase automatically goes to support your charity.

3.  Help Out Online.  Beyond organizations like iGive, you can either donate your writing skills (do you have a skill writing grant applications?) or your time spent surfing the web to help out a charitable organization.

4.  Use Social Networking.  Facebook is a great way to encourage your friends to donate to a charity in your name, rather than give you a gift for the holidays or your next birthday.  Promote fundraising event on your page by “liking” your favorite causes.  Just do a search on Facebook with keywords like “donate,” and you’ll hit the motherlode.

5.  Help Others Helping Out.  Get a group of people to help prep meals for family kitchen, or encourage your friends to donate time to help stuff envelopes for a fundraising drive.  Have extra room in your home for a foster pet?  Its a short-term obligation with long-term payouts.

How are you giving back this holiday season?