Post Holiday
I try to donate a little money every month to a different charity. The amounts are small, but regular giving is important to me - like flossing and vitamins, giving is a good habit to cultivate. In December, I try to pick one or two charities for larger donations, as a way of balancing out the constant ‘buy buy BUY Things equal Love‘ message of Xmas that I feel bombarded with from about the middle of October onward.
This year, Half the Sky was our December charity, and then we sponsored christmas for some children (so much fun, by the way, to get their letters and go shopping! I spent more time on this project than I did presents for my family!) and sent care packages to soldiers. In the past, I have always meant to donate to heifer international, but hadn’t yet - they were on my future giving list. After all, how fun to give someone honeybees, or geese, or a water buffalo. Except….you aren’t. I received their catalog this year, and the copy is very, very misleading, according to Philip Greenspun and Michael Stillwell, who read the small print, and discovered that, “you find that your purchase is “symbolic” and “represents a contribution to the entire mission of Heifer International.” (Quote from Stillwell). Not quite as much fun, is it, to contribute to a general fund that one day may provide stock animals to families than it is to buy a flock of geese.
And as always, I am a huge fan of charity navigator, for evaluating one’s charities of choice.