Ways to give
So, you have some time or money that you would like to give - but how do you begin? There are as many ways to give as there are people who need support. We show you the doorways to giving - you can choose any one to step through.
Philanthropy is not just about giving money, giving your time and experience will benefit your community as well:
The Generosity Hub has defined four pillars of giving:
- The giving of Money – giving money to a charitable organisation/individual to assist their work.
- The giving of Time – volunteering across the spectrum from painting a fence to skill sharing.
- Acts of Kindness – random acts that help another person
- In-kind Giving – sharing skills with someone/an organisation that will benefit
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Deciding WHO to give to
A simple approach that is useful for narrowing down who to give to is to ask yourself the following questions:
- What is my wish for the world?
- What might help achieve it?
- Will I give time or money or both?
- Create a short list of organisations working in a way that aligns with your wish and your approach for achieving it
- Check the organisations out.
Make an informed choice
The Charities Commission urges anyone thinking of volunteering or making a donation to a charity, to start by checking the information available on the Charities Register at www.charities.govt.nz.
Ways to donate money
Check out these ideas for donating money.
How can I give time?
Check out ideas for volunteering.
Perform a Random Act of Kindness
Be kind to someone else through a Random Act of Kindness, where you're not seeking credit or something in return. 'RAK' a family member, a friend.... or a complete stranger by shouting them coffee, mowing their lawn, giving them flowers or even something as simple as visiting the many lonely elderly or sick around our country!
Find out more at: www.rak.co.nz
Practise In-kind Giving
In-kind giving is a contribution of goods or services that are of value to a not-for-profit organisation. Businesses do it, corporations do it, and so do individual donors.
A number of New Zealand businesses and corporations provide in-kind giving through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and/or Sustainability programmes. The primary focus of these types of activities is to find ways that the businesses assets and resources (rather than money) can be used on developing initiatives to address specific societal issues, such as the environment, community economic development, education, health, literacy, language and culture.
There are a number of organisations that facilitate in kind giving and work with companies wanting to run effective CSR programmes.
Donate your goods or give a discount
Donate NZ provides the ultimate simple portal where individuals, organisations and companies can donate goods, time and discounts to schools, early childhood and not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand.
Find your donor match here: www.donatenz.com