End-of-year giving tips
Dec. 30th, 2017 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkI am trying to cram a bunch of charitable donations into the last few minutes of the year so I can take advantage of the charitable tax deduction one last time. As always, I am trying to give as anonymously as possible so I don't get phone calls and mailings begging for money all year. My favorite method of payment is still Paypal, which provides a privacy wall. I used to let Paypal draw funds from my checking account, but now I have it linked to my favorite rewards credit card. So I get Ultimate Rewards for the donation, the charity doesn't get my contact info, and Paypal only charges the charity around 3% for the transaction. Win-win-win!
If the charity does not support anonymous donation via Paypal, I use a wonderful service called Network For Good. They combine basic charity rating information with a private, centralized site for giving anonymously. Their processing fee for charities is a little higher than Paypal, so I usually try to give directly from the charity website first, but it's still a very reasonable 5%. I would have given up on Planned Parenthood years ago if I hadn't found this method of bypassing their junk-mail-generation machine.
If you're looking for worthy local causes in the areas of most basic human need, take a look at Sharing and Caring Hands , People Serving People and Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. The last one is the organization that the Butter Bakery works with to provide jobs and training for homeless youth (thanks to Lydy for telling me about this one). NFG works with all of these.
If the charity does not support anonymous donation via Paypal, I use a wonderful service called Network For Good. They combine basic charity rating information with a private, centralized site for giving anonymously. Their processing fee for charities is a little higher than Paypal, so I usually try to give directly from the charity website first, but it's still a very reasonable 5%. I would have given up on Planned Parenthood years ago if I hadn't found this method of bypassing their junk-mail-generation machine.
If you're looking for worthy local causes in the areas of most basic human need, take a look at Sharing and Caring Hands , People Serving People and Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. The last one is the organization that the Butter Bakery works with to provide jobs and training for homeless youth (thanks to Lydy for telling me about this one). NFG works with all of these.
