How to Personalize Charitable Donations

Kathy Foust
The very idea of giving charitable donations is to help society, or some portion of society in some way. The idea of giving personalized charitable donations isn't based on wanting the recipient of the donations to know that you did it. Rather, personalizing the donations is a way for you to give more than something of monetary value. It's a way for you to give a bit of yourself along with something material. There are a variety of ways to make personalized donations if you get creative about it!

Donate handmade items. If you enjoy doing some type of craft, then making handmade items to donate is a great way to express yourself and contribute a personalized charitable donation to your favorite cause at the same time. For instance, if you knit, scarves and hats make great donation items for the winter season and can be donated for immediate use to homeless shelters and soup kitchens in your area. Pot holders, kitchen and storage items all make great donations for places like battered women shelters. If you can make it, chances are good that someone can use it and you can have the intrinsic benefit of knowing that your skills played a part in helping someone out.

Volunteer. It's not just cash and material items that make great personalized charitable donations. Sometimes giving your time is the best way to donate. Whether you're helping to sort donated items, promoting a fundraiser or simply stopping by a nursing home to visit with someone who has no family, your time and effort are appreciated.

Create a charity group. Maybe you belong to a social group already. If so, why not organize a specific type of benefit for your favorite charity? If you don't belong to a social group, get together with some friends and create your own. Using this method, you can pool together the skills of an entire group so that you reap the social benefits of such a group and you each get to personalize charitable donations for your favorite cause.

Personalize your cash donations. Some companies even go out of their way to make charity easy using a charity gift card. A charity gift card not only allows you to make donations, it helps you to spread the idea of giving. You make a personalized gift card and give it to someone as a gift. They in turn use the charity gift card as a means to make donations to the recipient of their choice. For instance, you might offer these cards to your employees, friends or even grandchildren so that they can make donations to their favorite charity.

Teach your children to be charitable. There is nothing more personal than the gifts we pass on to our children. If you teach your child to be charitable, you haven't just personalized a donation, you've created a gift that keeps on giving. As your child grows, their charitable nature might just rub off on others or even become something they make their own way of life out of.

Making a personalized charitable donation is really a matter of personal preference. Every individual has the ability to contribute to society and there literally hundreds of charities to choose from, with new ones being created all the time. If you want to donate and just don't know where you can help out at, why not do some research to learn what charities already exist? Whatever your interest is, you're bound to find some area that you'd like to contribute to. Personalize your charitable donation so that you can feel your best about your contribution and you can let the recipient know that you really put some thought into the donation.

Published by Kathy Foust - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle

Kathy is a professional freelance writer, student and mother. Her goal is to provide useful information that's easy to understand and that may even be entertaining!  View profile

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.