Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving.

~O. Henry, Heart of the West, 1907

Are you tired of the debt crisis in Europe and the inane arguments over the U.S. debt ceiling? Have you had it with watching wealthy politicians and bankers arguing over who’s going to sit in the last deck chair on the Titanic? While all of these theatrics seem like a surreal scene from The Simpsons, there is a crisis unfolding in another part of the world that has received precious little attention..

Children are starving in Africa. OK, so that’s nothing new, right? Yawn . . .  You may not be aware that things are much worse than usual in Eastern Africa because of a devastating drought. People who normally have very few resources are trying to cope with a crisis with even less. And by crisis, I mean struggling to exist – not struggling to retain wealth/power/status.

Canadians Can Help

There are many channels through which you can donate. Canadians can go to the website of The Humanitarian Coalition which is an amalgamation of several major Canadian charities. You can donate online or by phone.

I chose to donate through Plan Canada (1-800-387-1418) because I have sponsored a child for over 10 years now and I’m most familiar with that organization. According to Plan’s website:

“The lives of 11 million people – most of them children – are at risk in East Africa. The UN has categorized the crisis as an emergency in the region, and in some areas a famine. Whole communities have collapsed, livelihoods have been irreversibly damaged and children and adults are severely acutely malnourished.”

I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but our problems really don’t amount to a hill of beans compared to what these people are enduring right now. Please consider a donation in whatever amount you feel is appropriate for your situation.

But wait, there’s more . . .

Turn Your Loonies Into Toonies

The Canadian government will match your gift dollar for dollar until September 16th of this year.

We may not be able to do anything about the Gong Shows playing out around the globe, but we can do something to help these children. And besides – it feels good. I think we could all do with a little more of that given the ludicrous tenor of today’s headlines.

Have you heard about the drought and famine in Africa?

Related posts:

1. GIC Strategy: Two Important Questions
2. The Lexicon of Debt: Is Debt Evil?
3. Debt Clock: What Does Yours Look Like?

To give and then not feel that one has given is the best of all ways of giving.

~ Max Beerbohm

Giving is something that most of us like to do. We love to buy great gifts for our loved ones, and we want to support charitable institutions that are close to our hearts. But sometimes when we look at our budget, there just doesn’t seem to be anything left over, or we forget to include giving altogether.

When an occasion to give comes up, it can be a real budget-buster, and may even force us to take on unplanned debt. We’ve been talking about budgeting a lot lately, and the crisis in Haiti has put giving on our minds, so I thought I might go over some ways to incorporate giving – without breaking the budget.

Pay It Forward First

Paying it forward means that if I owe you a favour or debt of gratitude, you might ask me to give it to someone else instead of you. “Pay it forward first” is a twist on this expression combined with the old “pay yourself first” personal finance cliché. Basically, it means that when you budget, you could decide to take a certain amount or percentage of your net income and devote it to giving. You can budget how much you’ll spend on gifts for Christmas, birthdays, or other occasions and how much you will budget for charitable giving.

Here are a few tips on including various types of giving in your budget:

Charitable Donations

Focus Your Cash: Choose a few reputable charitable organizations on which to focus your donation dollars. Spreading your cash too thin probably won’t help as much as a few targeted donations. When a representative of another (albeit worthy) cause knocks on your door, phones you, or sends you mail, simply explain that you have a few charities that you support and you are unfortunately unable to contribute to theirs. I do this regularly, but I will also drop the occasional toonie into a container for causes like a local children’s sports team or some other worthy cause. The occasional loonie or toonie isn’t going to break anyone’s budget, and it feels good.

Christmas, Birthdays, Weddings, etc.

Create a Gift Budget: I pretty much need to buy the same amount in gifts each year for the same people, so it’s kind of silly that it took me until last year to really sit down and write out a little “gift budget”. I keep it in the “Notes” section of my computer, so I don’t have to try to remember how much I’m supposed to spend on my kids, parents, nieces, nephews, etc. for various occasions. If I know I have an occasion coming up that is not annual, like a wedding or baby shower, I include an amount for that event.

I even have a separate sub-budget for Christmas. It has only taken me 20 years to realize that every year, some little unexpected expense comes up, like a new set of lights is needed, or extra cash for “libations” that we normally wouldn’t keep on hand. This goes into a “Christmas: Misc.” category in Quicken as well. It makes the holiday season much more enjoyable when you can go out shopping and know exactly what you can (and can’t) afford.

Add a Cushion

OK, here I go with the contingency plan thing again. This is something that I’m adding just this year in light of recent events. When a catastrophic event occurs somewhere in the world, most of us want to be able to help in some way. The reality is that the fastest, easiest, and most realistic way for most of us to do that is simply to donate money. It’s much better if you can do it quickly, without worrying about whether or not you can afford it.

When I made our donation to Doctors Without Borders last week, that money was not in the budget. It didn’t matter because we wanted to help right away, and we’re willing to give up something else later in order to do that. Still, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. We have had 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian Tsunami, and many more donation-worthy events over the past decade, and it seems like they just keep coming. From now on, I’m going to include a little extra in our giving budget each year.

Do you budget for giving? Do you have any tips to share?

Related posts:

1. Do You Need a Budget?
2. How to Make a Budget: Your One-Stop Shop
3. How to Make a Budget: My 2 Cents

We should give as we would receive: cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

~ Seneca

We’ve all been jarred by the devastation in Haiti this past week. People are coming together from all over the world to help. It’s gratifying to see folks digging deep to give at a time when financial difficulty is common. The absolute horror of what’s going on in Haiti puts a lot of that in perspective. I’ve recently written about the changes in our own financial life, but I know there are millions of people who would dearly love to trade places with us. And as tough as things are for those people, I know that the people of Haiti would probably gladly trade places with them.

Yesterday, I was touched by a blog posting by Frugal Trader and Kathryn over at Million Dollar Journey. They offered to match reader donations to a maximum of $500. Their goal was met very shortly. I noticed that lots of other bloggers were eliciting aid as well. I thought I would highlight some of them here in hopes up stirring up a few more donations:

• Four Pillars
• Canadian Capitalist
• Cash Money Life
• Wise Bread

This is just a small slice of the bloggers I noticed as of Friday afternoon. There are hundreds more, and I’m sure many more will chime in during the days ahead. At about 6 weeks old, my blog doesn’t come close to the reach these folks have, but I thought I would do my little bit and encourage you to donate now if you haven’t already.

The Canadian Government is matching contributions made to eligible Canadian charities, so your loonies will go a long way. I’ve boiled down the long list of eligible organizations to 3 of the largest and most reputable ones so that you don’t need to waste any time worrying about where to put your money. The need is urgent.

1. The Canadian Red Cross
2. Unicef Canada
3. Doctors Without Borders Canada (MSF -Medecins Sans Frontieres)

I’ve noticed that some of these sites have become bogged down, presumably because so many people are trying to donate. Please keep trying if you’re not successful at first, and thanks for your help.

No related posts.