Times for donors are tough. You want to give, but your personal pot of generosity feels smaller than it did a year or two ago. Like most people, you’re now hesitating a second longer before pulling out your credit card. The kitchen renovation can wait a year. Last season’s summer clothes just need a belt, not a bin.
You want to support your favourite causes, but how can you? The money you could afford to give is gone. Sometimes, money does feel like everything.
If you’re feeling the need to cut back on your planned giving, don’t worry: Your relationship with your charity can deepen during tough times, making your contributions and commitment even more valuable to the cause in the long run.
Firstly, call your charity and be honest. Let them know you need a giving holiday. Most donors are feeling the pinch, but knowing will help your charity to budget more realistically. Take your time. Let them know if you need six months or two years. And call them back if you need more. They’ll appreciate the information, and can use this foresight to ensure their projects remain as unaffected as possible. And you can breathe a sigh of relief that your lack of funds won’t come as a horrible surprise potentially undoing the good you’ve been investing in all these years.
And though your financial contribution may be on pause, there are still ways to give to charity that still give you returns on that warm and fuzzy feeling! Here are a few examples….
- Give Blood. One of my all time favourite strap lines is for the Canadian Blood Services: Blood, it’s in you to give. Yes it is. In fact, this is one of the few donations that turn you a profit as a donor. You give something that you don’t even notice is gone and leave with as many cookies and cups of juice as you can hold!
- Give hair. You can replace it easily! Recently I cut off 12 inches of hair for Locks of Love. I knew that my giving abilities were decreasing so I looked for other ways to get money to a charity close to my heart – Cancer Research. Asking my friends and loved ones for support, I raised over £1,400 and donated my hair to make a wig for a child with alopecia or who is going through chemo. I can grow more hair, but I knew cancer research couldn’t stop simply because of a recession.
- Take direct action. People give to people they know. Finding $500 to give to your favourite cause may simply be too much right now. (Couch cushions have been raided and there’s simply not much left!) Undertaking an event that only takes your time and commitment is a fantastic way of giving. Donors may not be in a rush to sign up to a regular gift right now, but they will still buy Girl Guide cookies from the girl next door or support their best friend in a 5k run. Be creative. Dig out your runners and train for a walk for the Parkinson’s Society, ask your kids to organise a sponsored silence to raise money for The Canadian Association of the Deaf (win win on this one!) or sponsor a weight loss with money for each pound lost going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Find something you can do and ask the people you love to help you. Together, you can hit your target before you know it.
- Reach out to your community. Offer your time, your experience and your manpower. Families will be staying closer to home and foregoing the annual summer holiday. Why not see if there are projects to clean up your local park? People who have lost their jobs need help shaping up their CVs: Call your local shelter to see if you can be of service. Or simply call around and see whom you can help. Shelters, schools, rec-centers, and charity shops all require local support to keep running. Whilst the job they ask you to do may not be the Florence Nightingale vision you went in with, they asked because it’s important and they need your help. Check out Urbantastic for examples in and around Vancouver.
- Make your night out an extra good one. Just because times are tight doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying yourself. Why not take advantage of some great events that can often be much more affordable than you think to attend? I spent a recent evening drinking champagne in Mayfair with The Duke of Westminster whilst supporting Asian elephants with The Elephant Family. Tickets were an affordable £20 including champagne and amazing food from local restaurants. Or enjoy a sinful buffet and raise money for Cancer Research in Canada through Keep on Swimming. Remember that just because your donation comes in exchange for a great night out or a service you need regardless doesn’t make it less valuable.
Whatever you choose to do, remember that just because you can’t give now, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to in the future. Get involved with local and national causes. Find out which charities mean more to you. Give them your time, and your commitment and when the time comes that you can give them money, your relationship will be that much more beneficial for both parties.
There’s benefit to you, too: Donors who feel engaged with a charity and participate in more than one way (giving and volunteering or campaigning and making a legacy commitment) have a considerably longer life-time and life-time value than those who just give.
You’re worth more than you think.
Octopus Strategies Vancouver | London