Give ME nothing please

I am not sure if I stated how much I hate it when people make a big deal about when I do a good deed.  I remember a sidebar in a MAD comic when I was a kid: A man stands up and states his name, his address and says that he is donating $1000 to a charity… next panel he says Anonymously!  Obviously he is not and that is the point, when you donate to a charity, you either want everyone to know that you did it or you don't want anyone to know.  There is middle ground.  You can gift a donation, and that is what I do.  Especially at Christmas time.  People want gifts, but they don't need the gifts.  My sister has a really good job and her husband has a really good job too, they can afford more than I could ever give them and truthfully my sister gets what she wants all year long for herself.  My parents don't need anything.  They are older, they buy the stuff they need and they think buying the other stuff is a waste of money.  I don't care for most anything.  If I need it I will buy it if I don't need it I wont get it.  The only things that I need that I don't buy are things that you can't buy anyways.  I would be very happy if I got what I got them.  I gave my sister a part share in a emergency supply drop.  That donation along with 39 other donations will give enough supplies to ten thousand people for three months in some disaster region around the world.  I gave my mom and dad a birthing kit that will help a village grow somewhere and a bicycle that will let someone or some family to transport itself and get better work, better food, travel to a better water source.

You know those food drives? Everyone gives a five or ten dollar bag of groceries or perhaps a can of corn.  If that is all you can give give that.  The truth is though, that is an expensive chunk of charity.  People have to volunteer to put that those foodstuffs away and store them properly.  Some have expiry dates and those need to be sorted.  Money on the other hand has no special storage requirements and can be used when ever it is needed.  Most food banks have arrangements that allow them to purchase food at wholesale and discount prices.  Money can purchase food stuffs that can go bad like fruit, vegetables and dairy.  It can purchase ethnic foods that people find more comforting.  It can purchase fuel for trucks to distribute the food, it can pay bills that keep the doors open.  The value of a cash donation is about ten times the value that a food donation provides.  Sending your kid to school with a two dollar can of creamed corn? Send twenty dollars worth of value with a mere two dollars cash instead.  

One of my podcasts that I listen to: http://www.trcpodcast.com/trc-379-charitable-giving-premium-vs-regular-gas-elf-on-the-shelf/  They challenged people to donate a mere 1% of their yearly earnings and he backed up his challenge that he personally donated 20% of his income.  It is difficult in today's economy for everyone to tithe, 10% of you income, but some people still do it.  Don't tithe to your church, tithe to people who need it.

There are services that people use everyday like Wikipedia, they are free but they cost money and they don't have advertisements.  We use it, we should help pay for it.  Wikipedia, much more accurate than any paper encyclopedia, goes into much more detail, is self correcting, documented and cited, available in many languages and is the first go to source for many argument and university paper.  This site is the legacy of humanity, it is the repository of 99.9% of all human knowledge.  We need to keep it going.

I am not going to tell you how much I donated this year, because I am not e man in the comic.  I donate anonymously.  I donate as gifts.  I sometimes give my spare change to that homeless guy.  If I don't have change I might have bought them a coffee.  I don't want an applause, I want you to do the same. I don't want Christmas gifts, the gift cards I got last year are still in my wallet.  Give me a gift of knowing you care for people you will never meet.  Oh and don't forget to tip the people that you visited everyday.  I have to tip one or two more people that I saw everyday almost.  I don't have to, but I will.