I was so encouraged and inspired by the comments in Swistle's post about "Doing Good with Money" that it's really got me thinking about my own philanthropy. Now, you'd think since I'm an actual fundraiser I'd think about this all the time but to be honest, most of the donors I work with are very wealthy and making very large gifts that seem completely unattainable to me. On the other hand I'm a total believer in making a small gift and 'doing my part' in the theory that if we all did our part for all the causes we believed in it would make an enormous difference. So I'm a member of my local public radio station and I have payroll deduct supporting the organization I work and fundraise for but I don't do a ton else.
But! We're just now all of a sudden at a point in our lives where we aren't paying for daycare or college and whoa that's nice. We also don't have a car payment nor any enormous house projects. So there really is a bit of ease in the budget to chip in. But! I'm honestly, naturally, a cheapskate. But! I hate shopping. While some women would be up late at night surfing the web finding shoes I can surf the web and find charities. But! I really actually probably should find some shoes I can wear to work without embarrassment.
Anyway! I finally did chip in for three things:
The Rohinga crisis in Myanmar. This particular genocide/tragedy/horror has really struck home for me for no real reason. Horrifying things happen all over all the time but I've followed this a bit in the media (Pod Save the World did an episode on it a while ago) and I've just felt totally useless yet stressed out. So I'm very grateful that Brandon of Humans of New York is there documenting the almost-impossible-to-read stories of these refugees. He's set up a Go Fund Me .
In a completely different vein at a conference I met folks from the Marin Fibershed who are trying to create a regional fibershed that they are saying is climate beneficial. I'm a bit skeptical about the climate change aspects but I LOVE the idea. The fibershed (like a watershed , a region) is mostly wool in our area--there is lots of cotton in CA but not in our part of CA. Anyway, in the Sacramento area a veteran is taking old milling equipment and milling the wool (and some cotton) into fabric. I follow him on Instagram and I love seeing the old machines and the textiles coming off the mill. I'm hoping to get to tour soon but in the meantime I backed their Kickstarter to stay in their current location.
And finally, I became a patron, via Patreon, for two of my favorite podcasts The Nuanced Life and Pantsuit Politics. I just want to support what those ladies are doing.
Looking at this list I'm struck by the fact that none of these 'gifts' are actually tax deductible charitable contributions. But they're all in my mental "donations" category because they're investments, without much/any direct reward in causes I want to support.
PS Photo is totally unrelated but that's an entire field of carrots. Half harvested, half not. And I got to see a carrot harvester in action. Which is a really cool thing :)
YES: tax-deductibility is nice when it works out, but often doesn't with my causes/supports, either. And I've given up on trying to deduct donations of new clothing (like if I buy a bunch of clearance winter outerwear, or backpacks): too complicated.
Posted by: Swistle | March 12, 2018 at 04:30 AM