A few resources for you as you spend your charitable dollars this season....
http://www.anysoldier.com/ Website links you with a deployed soldier with requests from the soldier. A great way to show your support for the troops!
Most of the requests are for simple items such as granola bars and gatorade, though they generally wouldn't say no to a DVD or something.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/ Website that shows you how much of the dollar you give to a charity actually goes toward what you gave it for.
My favorite example: Firefighters Charitable Foundation. 83 cents of every dollar you give goes toward FUNDRAISING. Another 5.7 cents goes toward administrative costs, leaving just 11 cents of every dollar to actually support Fire Fighters.
Suggestion: If you want to help the Fire Fighters, go by the station and drop off a $20.
http://www.thehungersite.com/ Website that provides free food to the hungry among other things. Just visiting the site allows for the donation of free food, without you having to buy anything!
You can also make a purchase and a portion of that will go to help others, or make a charitable purchase (Pay a teacher's salary in Afghanistan, Malaria nets, etc.).
I know it's hard to believe something as wonderful as the Hunger Site is actually not a scam, so here is the Snopes page verifying that it's real and actually does what it says. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp
”I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare…If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us,… they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them.”
-C.S. Lewis
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