Donating in Times of Economic Slowdown
June 18, 2008 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
Right now, with an economic slowdown in place and consumers a little bit worried, donations are slowing down.
Now, I am an advocate of donating as part of healthy and well-rounded personal finances. We are still giving, since there are people who need even more help as food and gas prices rise. But that doesn’t alleviate the general trend toward a drop in donations felt by the nation’s nonprofits.
In order to combat that, there are now options that allow you to help with donating without spending extra money. GoodSearch.com sent me this press release, touting its services:
One standout pair of solutions – GoodSearch.com and GoodShop.com – allows supporters to give to their favorite organizations without spending a dime. GoodSearch.com is the Yahoo-powered search engine that donates a penny per search to the charity or school of the users’ choice. Similarly, GoodShop donates a percentage of every purchase from more than 700 retailers – including Amazon, Best Buy, Apple, Expedia, Target, Macy’s and many others.
It seems as though this a valid way to get some donating in during the economic slowdown. Although one might argue that if you have enough money to buy a new Apple computer, you probably have enough to give a little to a local charity. (Ooooh. Did that get preachy toward the end?)
Not preachy at all. We donate a percentage of our after-tax income. As long as the income doesn’t drop, I don’t see a need to donate less. If our income will drop, it will make perfect sense to adjust our giving budget accordingly.
We donate a percentage as well. This makes things a little easier when the income drops. We are giving less, but it is still the same proportion to our income.
Although I do like the concept behind these sites above. It can help increase the good we’re doing, I suppose.