It’s the final day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. To recap, I’ve asked a panel of judges to review a number of deserving charities as suggested by my readers. I’ve been posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way).
In response to a lot of feedback from folks who missed the original post (link in the paragraph above), I’ve decided not to pick a 12th charity and instead, ask for additional submissions from my readers. There are only 5 more days in the tax year. That means 5 more opportunities to make a charitable donation that you may deduct on your taxes (assuming that you itemize). Charities are reporting that donations are down for the year. If you have the means and the inclination to support a charitable organization this year, I highly encourage it. Remember, it’s your chance to do something good and get a tax break!
You can read about our prior 12 Days’ picks here:
Thanks to all who submitted the names of charitable organizations! And thanks, too, to my guest judges: Sally Andersen (Living Without Meat), Rana Bakhtiari (Rana Real Estate), Chris Erb (Erblawg), Robert Flach (The Wandering Tax Pro), Elisa Jähner (Erblawg), Sean Kelly (Franchise Pick), Madeline Martin (One Vote Matters), Doris & Wayne Phillips, and Anne Wayman (About Freelance Writing).
Now, it’s your turn (one more chance). What charitable organizations are on your radar this year?
It’s the eleventh day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. To recap, I’ve asked a panel of judges to review a number of deserving charities as suggested by my readers. I’ll be posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way).
I encourage you to check out the charities voted “most deserving” by my readers and judges. Remember that these are just suggestions and, in most cases, we can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be smart. And be generous.
Today’s featured charity was submitted by Robyn McIntyre. Robyn writes:
I support (through donation and volunteerism)
Valley Churches United in the San Lorenzo Valley area of Santa Cruz County. This group provides food to those who need it all year round. At Thanksgiving, the makings for full dinners are made available to families and special meals are taken to the homebound and the elderly. At Christmas, gifts are provided for underprivileged children and gift boxes taken to the elderly and shut-ins. This organization – started by the combined efforts of all the churches and temples in the Valley never stops giving and neither does their need for donations of money, time, and food items. Last year they served over 10,000 people in the four villages of the San Lorenzo Valley and neighboring town Scotts Valley.
A search at irs.gov (which I highly recommend any time you are considering making a donation) reveals that Valley Churches United is on the IRS list of charitable organizations.
You can read about our prior 12 Days’ picks here:
Thanks to our guest judge, Doris Phillips, for choosing Valley Churches United. Doris has devoted hours of her own time volunteering for and donating to charitable causes, including increasing literacy, ending poverty and supporting our military. Rumor has it, she also used to change my diapers…
It’s the tenth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. To recap, I’ve asked a panel of judges to review a number of deserving charities as suggested by my readers. I’ll be posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way).
I encourage you to check out the charities voted “most deserving” by my readers and judges. Remember that these are just suggestions and, in most cases, we can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be smart. And be generous.
Today’s featured charity was submitted by Shalni. Shalni writes:
I’m a big supporter of Rural Development Institute – based here in Seattle. RDI was started by a University of Washington law professor named Roy Prosterman. RDI focuses on land rights for the poor in the developing world.
Here’s some info about what they’ve done from their website:
Over the past 40 years, RDI’s work in more than 40 developing countries has proved to be a great social investment, bringing huge returns on each dollar contributed.
During that time, each dollar invested in RDI has, on average, produced new land rights for six families.
More than 100 million farm families worldwide — representing well over 400 million people — have received land rights.
That means that nearly one out of every sixteen people on the planet has been helped by RDI.
This change—from land insecurity to land ownership—has boosted agricultural productivity in the developing world by billions of dollars per year, and placed scores of billions of dollars in new land wealth in the hands of the rural poor.
A search at irs.gov (which I highly recommend any time you are considering making a donation) was puzzling. I couldn’t find RDI at first but finally did – there’s a typo in the name (an extra “e” in development). Make sure that you check alternate spellings when doing a search!
You can read about our prior 12 Days’ picks here:
Thanks to our guest judge, Anne Wayman, for choosing RDI. Anne writes a number of sites including the brilliant About Freelance Writing. Anne has been freelance writing for over thirty years and has been fully self-supporting through freelance writing for a number of years.
It’s the ninth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. To recap, I’ve asked a panel of judges to review a number of deserving charities as suggested by my readers. I’ll be posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way).
I encourage you to check out the charities voted “most deserving” by my readers and judges. Remember that these are just suggestions and, in most cases, we can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be smart. And be generous.
Today’s featured charity was submitted by Clarke Thomas. Clarke writes:
The African Well Fund believes that access to safe, consumable water is not merely a basic human need, but a basic human right. Our goal is to raise money for the construction and maintenance of clean water wells in Sub-Saharan Africa.
I support many charities, but try to promote people helping themselves. The African Well Fund, provides the water which they use for cooking, cleaning and farming. I’m a firm a believer in the saying, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish ; and you have fed him for a lifetime.”
A search at irs.gov (which I highly recommend any time you are considering making a donation) reveals that African Well Fund is on the IRS list of charitable organizations.
You can read about our prior 12 Days’ picks here:
Thanks to our guest judge, Wayne Phillips, for choosing the African Well Fund. Wayne has the distinction of being perhaps my most faithful reader. He’s also known me for a pretty long time…
