How do you organize holiday-time charitable giving?

[mjbaby]

I know that many people choose to do the bulk of their charitable giving in the holiday season so I'm kind of wondering what ya'll do.

We have "charity" as a budgetary line item for a certain amount that carries over and adds up every month. That way, if something comes up during the year, we can use whatever we've saved in that category. But we also try to save some of the amount for use during the winter holidays when so many groups have their appeals.

We also have a sort of policy of buying for Toys for Tots or Angel Tree or the like in the same amounts as we spend on our own kids for Christmas. I have two kids on whom I generally spend anywhere from $50 to $80 each for Christmas (between parents and Santa) so I'll also budget between $100 and $160 for toys for other kids. My son, who is now 6, always goes with me shopping for these toys, and it's become a nice tradition for us.

 

[DawnM]

You know, we buy all through the year for this. When we find great bargains we buy and stick them in our "gift closet". We use them for last minute birthday gift giving too.

So that is the first way....and it helps a LOT financially to not have to buy something last min. and get stuck paying higher prices.

For Operation Christmas Child......I have a huge drawer full of back to school items that WalMart and Target sold for very cheap (20 cent crayolas, 10 cent rulers, $1 box of pencils and I make sure to include a pencil sharpener) and that stuff. School supplies in OCC boxes are very much appreciated (I grew up in Kenya and that is most often what the kids would ask for and some of the poorer ones would dig through the garbage at our school for left over pencils and school supplies).....anyway, that is what we fill 3/4 of our box with.

Usually for Angel Tree we do something similar.....we try to find an angel on the tree with a request for something we have already bought. OR, we donate a few of our gifts to the angel tree coordinator as they usually end up a little short OR they get some requests unfilled and need a few extra gifts. We also help deliver! My kids love it!

So it is an all year thing for us.

Dawn

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

As far as monetary donations we have a certain amt. deducted from Dh's pay each month that automatically goes to the organization we have chosen.

Our Angel Tree is for gifts for Veterens (or it was last year) at the PX so I usually wait and see what is needed before buying anything.

 

[ilovejack02]

I dont really have any organization to mine. I just kinda give when i can. We gave a large sum of money recently to a needy family so that will prob be it for the rest of the year as far as money contributions( not tax deductible but whatever). My son has the Operation Christmas shoebox to fill up so we will do that and I usually buy for the angel tree at Walmart and a consignment shop where i shop usually adopts a couple of her neediest families that shop there and do a big thing for them. For her i usually get the whole family a huge bag of new tolietries.

 

[NotSoMini]

Our local women's and children's shelter is where we spend the bulk of our holiday charity donations. The shelter will give you the ages and sex of the children, sometimes with a wished for gift from the child, and we purchase things for the kids and the mother, too.

We also make sure to donate even a little bit of money to our local Salvation Army every time we go into a store where they are located over the Christmas season.

 

[jillyjoey]

I don't really organize either but here is what we do

(1) Angel Tree

or -- for the past 2 years

(2) adopt a soldier

Now that both of my kids are in school -- we usually "donate" all year long instead of selling things -- don't like my kids selling door to door, don't have any relatives, and don't like pressuring co-workers -- so I usually just give a $100 donation.

Plus -- we donate to Humane Society when they have their requests for dog food, etc. And during any kind of natural disaster -- living in Tornado Alley we have quite the opporunity to do this. -- The only year we didn't give was the year we got hit.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

there are a couple of local charities here that pretty much dominate the "children in need" scene that I won't donate to for a couple of reasons.

Last year we went the other direction and purchased some gifts for a couple of Nursing Home residents that our Pastor was aware of that do not get many visitors.

I think we'll do that again and probably make a large gift to the local Easter Seals program.

 

[demac9196]

At the resort I work at, we have sponsored a local soldier. Also, one Thanksgiving we contacted the local Human Services Department of the town and provided Thanksgiving for a single mom and her two kids. The mom had lost her job six months before and was really struggling. We are doing it again this year.