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Finding Charities To Volunteer One’s Time or Items

April 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many believe that you reap what you sow, meaning what you give to the world, you receive in some way. Because of today’s economy, many families and individuals are struggling to make ends meet, keep their home, or even feed themselves or their children. This makes the work for charities increasingly important. Whether donating money to a local charity or donating one’s time, both gestures are positive, selfless acts of one’s self.

Volunteering One’s Time

Many charities such as the Salvation Army, Purple Heart and Goodwill (just to name a few) are constantly reaching out for volunteers. Volunteering is an admirable act of giving to your community and those in need. Many charities have soup kitchens, offer clothes to the homeless and plant trees and gardens throughout communities, just to name a few of their projects. Each charity has a different agenda and goals’, so contacting them directly is important to discovering where your talents lie. Various charities also work with disaster relief and often send their volunteers to various locations both nationally and internationally to help relief efforts.

Using a search engine such as Canada 411 will help you find a variety of local charities that may require your items, your time or your donation. This search engine with not only give you their contact number, but also a map of where to find them and a website to browse. From there, you can determine which charities work best with your abilities, the time you have available, or the items you have to give.

Filed Under: Charity, General Tagged With: , ,

How to Avoid Charity Scams.

February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many people want to give to charities to help others out. There are many great charities that these people can give to, but, there are also many charity scams out there. If you are giving to charity you want to know that your donation is going to help the people that you meant for it to help. Although it is difficult to be absolutely positive your donation is going where you intended for it to go, there are a few things that you can watch out for to help you be a little bit more sure that you are avoiding the scams. Here are a few of the things you should do or watch for to try to avoid being scammed.

  1. Donate items: Most scams are people trying to collect money. If you are giving to a charity that is asking for toys for kids, food, clothes, etc. then it is probably not a scam. Most real charities will accept almost anything. If the charity you are trying to donate to refuses to accept what you are trying to donate then you should probably go somewhere else.

  2. Donate to well know organizations: Donating to a well know charity organization can help you avoid scams. Some examples are: American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. The best way to donate to these places is to actually go to the local office to make your donation.

  3. Avoid e-mail links: Do not donate online through a link in an e-mail. Even if the e-mail looks like it is legitimate that does not mean that it is. If you want to donate online, type in the address of the charity or do a web search to find it. Most charity websites will end in .org.

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How you can Donate to Your Local Community.

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you looking for ways to give to your community? In most areas there are many ways that you can help. Whether you want to donate items, money, or time, there are a lot of options to choose from. The first thing you will want to do is to decide how you want to help. Are you going to give money to a local charity? Are you going to do volunteer work for a local shelter? Maybe you want to do something else. Here are a few ideas to help you figure out what might be the right way for you to help out.

  1. Local food shelf: You can donate non-perishable food to a local food shelf to help feed families in need. If you grow fresh fruits or vegetables some food shelves will accept that too. You could also see if they need any volunteer help.

  2. Thrift stores: If you have any items around the house that you no longer want, and they are in good shape, donate them. Most areas have non-profit thrift stores, like Salvation Army, that will accept donated goods. They will then sell them at low prices for low-income people and use the profits to help in the community.

  3. Homeless shelter: A local homeless shelter can be a great place to help. You can donate money to help with staffing and other costs. You can donate food to be given to the homeless who go there. You can also volunteer your time to help do cleaning or help prepare meals.

  4. Church: A local church is a great place to go if you want to do good. Most churches have programs to help people in need. You can donate money to help with these programs or you can ask if they need any volunteer help. Even if your church does not have any programs, they can probably help you find a place that could use your help.

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