Today in the mail, I got my information kit and photo of the little girl I'll be sponsoring through Children International. Lilibeth is 7 years old, and lives in Colombia. I'm really excited, so happy to be able to help make a difference in one person's life.
Part of my excitement is because I have the soul of a philanthropist -- that is the only reason I would want to be rich, earn more money than I need to be modestly comfortable -- and until recently I have not had a high enough/steady enough income to be able to contribute to any charity on a regular basis. I learned several years ago about the idea of dividing up my income into six categories: 50% goes to necessities, 10% retirement, 10% saving for spending, 10% give, 10% play (fun money), and 10% education.
I've recently gotten the retirement and savings deposits going, and now I'm getting the Give ball rolling. Sponsoring Lilibeth every month will be less than 10% of one week's paycheck for me. I think I may keep my give down to 5% however, simply because I think more will stretch my budget too tight again. (It's so nice to actually have a little bit of breathing room!)
A lot of my time tonight was spent on Charity Navigator, researching charities to give a percentage of my other weekly paychecks to. I've picked two human services charities that help here in the United States, they will get donations every month also. I believe it's important to help the people in our own country before we can help other countries.
Additionally, I have tentatively picked out three international charities besides my sponsorship of Lilibeth, and I will rotate them so that they each get a quarterly donation. (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct for example). But I'm still debating about a couple of other charities as well.
On the Charity Navigator site, it says it's better to pick out a select few charities and stick with them for the long haul, than to give a little here and a little there. So I'm torn between two categories, "development & relief" and "environmental protection", as well as the two or three charities in each category that I'd like to donate to.
The "give" percentage of three of my weekly paychecks each month is accounted for. So how many charities should I split the final week's percentage between? Three charities getting quarterly donations? Six charities each getting two donations a year? Sigh.
I'll let it perk for a while. I've got three weeks to figure it out while I donate to the other three charities I've already picked, right?
Wow! You rock! Seriously, I have always been kind of stand-offish to giving to charity because I have this idea in my head that my money will never actually get to the people I want to help. But you have inspired me...in fact you inspire me on alot of things. :)
ReplyDelete~blushes~ =) Thank you for your sweet comment Danne, about being inspiring. It always surprises me to hear that.
ReplyDeleteI was researching Colombia so I could better understand the culture Lilibeth lives in, and I found some articles about how charity is a superficial band-aid that doesn't really fix the larger problems. Which makes me sad, but even if it doesn't fix the bigger problem of poverty, it's gotta help even just one or two or perhaps even a handful of people, and even just that is making a difference to those individuals. I mean 80 cents of each dollar (or more depending on the charity) goes into the programs, if the charity is a good one. www.charitynavigator.com helps you find those financially efficient charities.