Ideas for charitable giving

[street]

Been involved as a board member on a foundation for community care for most of my working years. A very rewarding group and has done a great deal of work for all people/ages in the area.

I been wanting to be able to help in other ways as an individual not associated with any type of charity organization.

One idea is and some of you may have seen this done in your area. It is paying for a meal ticket of 5 to 10 dollars off of a meal for a local eating establishments. These meal tickets would be posted on a peg board or area of advertising board a lot of eating places have as you enter, as an advertising tool. A person could take a meal ticket and get 5/10 dollars off of their meal. I would think this project would work well at a cafeteria at a hospital or place where this may help those that are traveling in for medical help etc. and may help people more in need.

The second idea would paying for a few lunch meals for the less fortunate child in the school system. This maybe done by talking to administration and see if their is someone that could use this help.

Let me know what you think of my ideas and give any advice or add any suggestions for other ways to give back. Tweak ideas give another view or just add your opinion will work or not work.

 

[Dash man]

I give to a couple of food banks in the area. There is a huge demand for their services. I also support a homeless shelter with both monetary donations and occasionally getting on a schedule to prepare a home cooked meal for them.

We also have sponsored children in Haiti through CMMB and Honduras through ChildFund International.

Another favorite is Catholic Charities, which is a huge and respected organization that provides many forms of help around the world with low administrative expenses.

 

[Dash man]

The second idea would paying for a few lunch meals for the less fortunate child in the school system. This maybe done by talking to administration and see if their is someone that could use this help.

I think most schools have this covered with Federal programs.

 

[street]

Dash man, those are all great ways to give back and I commend you for that. I also do the food bank charity and have helped people in the area anonymously. Salvation Army I have donated many hours too and volunteered my labor for other charity groups. I know of no homeless shelters in my immediate area. I have donated time for a halfway home for temporary housing for down and out.

Thinking about the food ticket for a child in school system might be covered by fed programs.

What I'm looking for is to help other then being associated with know group that I can do voluntarily behind the scenes to help with out going through a national or publicized charity group.

 

[Jerry1]

I like the idea of a meal ticket. When I was working, my team would do an adopt a family thing for Christmas. We got our family through a children’s hospital social services department. So, not only was the family in need financially, there was a child with medical issues. I would think a meal ticket in a urban hospital setting might be very welcome.

With regards to schools, I’m not sure if this is universal, but at our grand kids school, they went from having a needs based program to just offering food to everyone. Personally, I like that idea since there’s no way really keep private those kids on support and at that age, there’s some stigma that could go along with that. Sad but true. So feeding everybody seems like a great answer to me.

I support a food bank. I wait for double donation days and contribute.

Around Christmas, there are people that go into stores and pay off layaway balances. I didn’t think layaway was a thing anymore, but I think I still exists. I was thinking of trying that.

I have been tipping significantly more than normal. Not exactly charity, but like the idea of supporting those that are busting their butts.

Churches usually have need requests. Maybe a young family is struggling and needs a washer/dryer. Pick up a good used set for them.

I support a charity that gets families off the floor buy providing mattresses and bedding (sheets, pillows . . .)

There’s so much need. Just ask around.

 

[FREE866]

I've been doing something a little unorthodox that I'll share with you that has given me great joy and helped individuals as well.


Since Covid started,the Sunday NYT would have a section or two on families or individuals who have been really financially devastated by Covid. Very personal stories and they would provide the persons name and city/town they lived in.



I would then do a search on Facebook for those individuals and send them a message to confirm I had the right person and expressed my sympathy. I then would ask for their address and I would ship them a few boxes of pasta, canned veggies, peanut butter, beans, rice, chickpeas, lentils, etc that I ordered from Vitacost.com. Free shipping on orders over $50. They would receive all this food and I would get back the nicest notes from the recipients expressing such gratitude for my kindness. Win-win in my book. Just an idea.

 

[SnowballCamper]

Why not just give directly to the needy then? Just hand out cash... with the offer for a ride to get where they need to go to spend it.

Once while riding the subway in NYC, a gentleman was handing out food to anyone who raised their hand to say they were hungry.

It's easy to give, but it's hard to prevent the need in the first place.

 

[Montecfo]

The truly needy are outside the US. Several organizations pack food to go to hungry people worldwide. Some of these are faith-based, some humanitarian.

Ideas here:https://www.thespruceeats.com/charities-that-fight-hunger-1666012

I think it is an excellent way to make an impact.

And, to make it more personal (your objective I know) you can work at these food packing events as a volunteer packing food to send to hungry people).

And of course you can donate.

 

[Souschef]

We are blessed and want to help the less fortunate. At the present time we use QCD's from our IRA's, because it gives the most bang for the buck.
Here are some we donate to:
Angel Flight West
Ventura Food Share
Homeless Shelter
Religious institution
Historical Society

 

[brett]

We have a publication that lists data about charitable groups. It rates data like how much is spent of actual service delivery, how much on admin, salary levels of execs, financial management etc.

We review this every year when the survey was published. Some of the salary levels are astounding. Same the percentages spent on admin and marketing.

We decided to switch the bulk of our giving to our local food bank based on some of the detail in this annual survey and we stopped giving to a few others.

 

[Souschef]

We have a publication that lists data about charitable groups. It rates data like how much is spent of actual service delivery, how much on admin, salary levels of execs, financial management etc.

We review this every year when the survey was published. Some of the salary levels are astounding. Same the percentages spent on admin and marketing.

We decided to switch the bulk of our giving to our local food bank based on some of the detail in this annual survey and we stopped giving to a few others.

We agree, we feel it is better to keep the donations in the community

 

[Dash man]

We used to pay of some Christmas layaways at Kmart, but all the ones near us closed. The Walmart’s near us don’t do layaway.
We do pick a few kids each year from our parish’s Angel Tree that we buy gifts for them.
We also do help with area families in need, such as one last year that had their house burn to the ground.
The Knights of Columbus chapter I belong to has various fund raisers during the year and provides help to many who need it during the year. A big one is a soup kitchen, and another is a scholarship. I’ve considered offering a daycare scholarship to help some young parents.

 

[street]

I've been doing something a little unorthodox that I'll share with you that has given me great joy and helped individuals as well.


Since Covid started,the Sunday NYT would have a section or two on families or individuals who have been really financially devastated by Covid. Very personal stories and they would provide the persons name and city/town they lived in.



I would then do a search on Facebook for those individuals and send them a message to confirm I had the right person and expressed my sympathy. I then would ask for their address and I would ship them a few boxes of pasta, canned veggies, peanut butter, beans, rice, chickpeas, lentils, etc that I ordered from Vitacost.com. Free shipping on orders over $50. They would receive all this food and I would get back the nicest notes from the recipients expressing such gratitude for my kindness. Win-win in my book. Just an idea.

That is what I'm talking about!! That is a very interesting way to help who really needs it and is appreciative of the gift. Very nice and a great plan. Thnaks

 

[street]

Why not just give directly to the needy then? Just hand out cash... with the offer for a ride to get where they need to go to spend it.

Once while riding the subway in NYC, a gentleman was handing out food to anyone who raised their hand to say they were hungry.

It's easy to give, but it's hard to prevent the need in the first place.

I live in a very rural area so go handing out money isn't my way of helping anyone in need. I'm not into celebrating my giving to others and want to go incognito, unknown to others way of giving.

You did that in my area you might make every small town paper in a 400 mile radius. No not for me, might work fine in a metro area but not sure it would be the most beneficial.

 

[OldShooter]

@street, WADR, I think that random gifts will produce random results and, maybe worse, you will never know.

For this type of thing, we have established a fund at a local community foundation. It gets separate accounting and reporting, and gifts are made according to written criteria, the principal one being:

"The goal of the fund is to provide crisis funding grants to benefit identifiable individuals in the target locality rather than to provide general support to charitable organizations or to provide grants to deal with chronic problems. This funding is not an endowment; grants should be made cost-effectively as legitimate needs arise, regardless of fund balance or calendar considerations."

​

From memory, some of the things we have funded include:

• Down payment on a trailer house roof for a widow on SS.
• Food cards for families identified by a local pastor.
• Winter clothing for a child identified by a local school administrator
• Bought parts for a car to be repaired by the local high school shop class and donated to a needy person.
• Drilled a new well for a needy person whose well had failed.
• Food cards for families identified by a local school administrator.

The mechanism set up by the foundation is quite clever. Selected individuals in the community are identified and trained in the application process; they provide the primary screening of recipients. These applications go to the foundation and are usually approved and implemented.

This is not a DAF; we fund it with QCDs. The foundation administrator makes the decisions, but from time to time she will contact me for an opinion on whether something is in or out of scope.

Here's the way to find your local community foundation: https://www.cof.org/page/community-foundation-locator I'm sure they are all different. Ours is small (staff of 4), very efficiently run, and very responsive. We find this to be a neat and effective way to help people.

Change Subject: Ref post #11, https://www.guidestar.org is the source for copies of any nonprofits' information and tax returns. To get the tax returns you have to register but I have found it to be painless and spam-free. For us, a stop at guidestar is the first step when considering any charity.

 

[Scrapr]

It used to be the school lunch program would have some kids with balances. And occasionally (Christmas?) I would hear of someone paying off all the balances. IDK if the feds take care of those? But might be worth a call

I don't do Facebook but the tracking & calling seems a bit stalker (ish) to me. But the family did put their info out into the world

 

[street]

@street, WADR, I think that random gifts will produce random results and, maybe worse, you will never know.

For this type of thing, we have established a fund at a local community foundation. It gets separate accounting and reporting, and gifts are made according to written criteria, the principal one being:

"The goal of the fund is to provide crisis funding grants to benefit identifiable individuals in the target locality rather than to provide general support to charitable organizations or to provide grants to deal with chronic problems. This funding is not an endowment; grants should be made cost-effectively as legitimate needs arise, regardless of fund balance or calendar considerations."

​

From memory, some of the things we have funded include:

• Down payment on a trailer house roof for a widow on SS.
• Food cards for families identified by a local pastor.
• Winter clothing for a child identified by a local school administrator
• Bought parts for a car to be repaired by the local high school shop class and donated to a needy person.
• Drilled a new well for a needy person whose well had failed.
• Food cards for families identified by a local school administrator.

The mechanism set up by the foundation is quite clever. Selected individuals in the community are identified and trained in the application process; they provide the primary screening of recipients. These applications go to the foundation and are usually approved and implemented.

This is not a DAF; we fund it with QCDs. The foundation administrator makes the decisions, but from time to time she will contact me for an opinion on whether something is in or out of scope.

Here's the way to find your local community foundation: https://www.cof.org/page/community-foundation-locator I'm sure they are all different. Ours is small (staff of 4), very efficiently run, and very responsive. We find this to be a neat and effective way to help people.

Change Subject: Ref post #11, https://www.guidestar.org is the source for copies of any nonprofits' information and tax returns. To get the tax returns you have to register but I have found it to be painless and spam-free. For us, a stop at guidestar is the first step when considering any charity.

Our Foundation is very similar to yours and also have some of the same areas of helping. We have been part of those non endowment special funds that go to people of needs that qualify in the guidelines required.

All great opportunities but still looking outside a non profit to do some work on my own to help.

 

[healthyandfun]

Wanted to pipe in on the payment of lunches for children at public school cafeterias. In my area, low income families can qualify for free meals, but do need to do income verification paperwork. Other not quite so low income might qualify for reduced cost meals and would pay on a scale. As a former educator. I would see some families drag their feet about paying. The child was put in the middle of the situation. It was very sad especially towards the end of the school year. I quietly made arrangements with the cafeteria manager to pay off accounts and I know other teachers at the elementary school did so as well. If this is something you think you might want to do, my suggestion would be to contact the cafeteria manager of a nearby public school to see if there is a need.

 

[street]

^ thanks and I will look in to that.

 

[SJ1_]

Been involved as a board member on a foundation for community care for most of my working years. A very rewarding group and has done a great deal of work for all people/ages in the area.

I been wanting to be able to help in other ways as an individual not associated with any type of charity organization.

One idea is and some of you may have seen this done in your area. It is paying for a meal ticket of 5 to 10 dollars off of a meal for a local eating establishments. These meal tickets would be posted on a peg board or area of advertising board a lot of eating places have as you enter, as an advertising tool. A person could take a meal ticket and get 5/10 dollars off of their meal. I would think this project would work well at a cafeteria at a hospital or place where this may help those that are traveling in for medical help etc. and may help people more in need.

The second idea would paying for a few lunch meals for the less fortunate child in the school system. This maybe done by talking to administration and see if their is someone that could use this help.

Let me know what you think of my ideas and give any advice or add any suggestions for other ways to give back. Tweak ideas give another view or just add your opinion will work or not work.

I give really good tips to housekeeping (currently travel a lot for my hobby ) at hotels my thought is theses people are working and not making a lot but they are working vs giving $$ to a charity that gives to someone who could but does not work
I also tip really good for the above reason
Great idea for a thread!

 

[RetireeRobert]

For some years now in my city, an anonymous benefactor has taken to "hiding" $100 bills in various stores in the city. He signs each $100 bill as "From Benny". The stories of people finding them have been in the local paper five or six times over the years. He will kind of tuck a bill at places such as grocery stores into food displays between cans, or onto packaging, and so on in ways they will be noticed by people buying those items. Other times he has dropped these bills into Salvation Army kettles at Christmas, or even a few times in other shoppers carts!

Some people who have found them have been some truly needy people who reported being down on their luck and wondering how they were going to get by. Others, who discovered themselves the beneficiaries of Benny's "gifts" have reported "paying it forward" and finding good and charitable uses for those $100 bills.

This story has been a multi-year saga. Very unique way to anonymously give.