Traditionally, Thanksgiving is the time of year where we give thanks. Above all, I want to express my gratitude to you. You are one of 25 people who have joined me in the quest for making better donations. I am deeply grateful for you, your trust, and your willingness to put your money where your heart is.

Together will we have donated $6,116 by the end of the year

Yes! Your $25 per month has added up to $6,116! Your $25 was increased by 24,356%! That’s not a typo. 24,356%!

You’ve heard me say time and again, that our power comes not just from the fact that we donate together, but that we donate smarter. Our $25 to the wrong charity could be worth ZERO dollars. But we’re choosing well-researched charities doing great work. We’re making sure our donations matter.

What’s so important about making our donations matter?

Sometimes there is a tendency to dismiss the meaning of donating money. We may have the impression that giving time is more valuable than giving money and that it’s something we do when we can’t or don’t want to donate our time. Now, I, in no way, intend to diminish the importance of giving time. Time is the essence of our life. Our lives are measured by minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, beginnings, and ends. Our life is time. Each minute lived is one minute we never have again. When we give our time, we give our life.

Giving money is equally important to giving time. Money is a symbolic and material object that we’ve received in exchange for our time– for our life. When we give our money, we have chosen to say that this thing/event/cause is worthy of my life. What we spend our money on is who we are.

You’ve decided that who you are is a person who cares AND a person who does. In the final analysis, what we say and what we believe is of little consequence. What matters is what we do.

I’m honored to be a person who does with you.

Giving Thanks by Giving Money

Donating money is only one way I give thanks for all the blessings I have in my life, but it seems the most appropriate one to talk about here with you. And I would like to honor you and to give thanks to you for the pleasure of making great donations together, so I am donating an additional $25 to each giving circle for our December donation.

I can’t wait to find out what amazing charities we’ll support next!

The idea of a giving circle is as old as civilization. It’s based on the simple truth that people doing something small but doing it together is more powerful than going it alone. There are over 800 giving circles across the country donating more than $100 million every year.

At my Giving Circles Help Blog, I interview leaders of giving circles from around the country, and I’m amazed by their accomplishments. Below you’ll find just a few of these phenomenal giving circles and what they’ve accomplished.

Remember, that these giving circles are accomplishing this because of people like you! People who walk the talk, who put their money where their heart is. The more people who join, the bigger the impact we can make, and I invite you to be a part of it!

The Giving Circle Showcase

• Impact Austin: There are 500 members donating $1,000 per year. In 9 years, they’ve donated more than $3 million to charities in their community.
• Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle: Their 375 members donate $1,100 per year. Founded in 2001, they’ve donated $2.7 million.
• Giving Circle of Hope: Members contribute $365/year for a total of $375,000 in donations since 2004.
• Rochester Women’s Giving Circle: Founded in 2008, they grew from 5 members to 80 members. Each member contributes $1,040 dollars– which has added up to over $250,000 for charities in their communities.
• Anne Arundel Women Giving Together: Members contribute $500 a year and in 6 years, they have donated more than $400,000.
• Giving Circle of Alexandria: Members must contribute at least $150, but can contribute as much as they’d like. Together they’ve donated over $350,000 to their community over the past 6 years.
• Moscow Women’s Giving Circle: In 4 years with members contributing just $1/day, they’ve donated over $40,000.

Join Now

Make easy, affordable, and powerful donations through a virtual giving circle. There’s no fee. It’s just great people doing something about what we care about. Be a part of it!

It’s true that this world if filled with pain, suffering, injustice, and other ugliness. How’s that for a start to a blog post about beauty??

It’s also true that this world is filled with people acting beautifully. I’d like to spend a couple minutes today appreciating the better side of human nature, acknowledging the progress being made, and celebrating our successes.

As we donate our hard earned dollars to make this world a better place, let’s remember the good that’s already happening.

Men Behaving Beautifully

Schoep is one lucky dog. John Unger adopted him from a shelter at 8 months old. And today, Schoep’s 19! He has terrible arthritis, and every night, John Unger takes Schoep into Lake Superior where the buoyancy of the water gives Schoep relief from the pain. Schoep rests his head on John’s shoulder and falls asleep for a few minutes. Isn’t this beautiful?

I also love that when this picture went viral, donations poured in to help with medical costs. When they received more money than they could use, John set up a fund to help other dogs with their veterinary care.

Success! Afghan Girls Skate Club

We hear horror stories about girls in Afghanistan, but let’s take a moment the celebrate success and progress that’s happening there, too. I think there is no greater joy than to see children being children, and this inspirational video will have you cheering for these young girls who are attending school and… skateboarding! Yes, skateboarding! I don’t know about you, but seeing these young girls with helmets, elbow pads, and giant grins gives me hope for the future.

A Veteran’s Inspirational Recovery

We have resources inside us we don’t even know exist, and it’s never too late to show up as the person we were born to be. Arthur was injured in the Gulf War. He was told he would never walk unassisted again, and he spiraled into a deep depression. At 47, he weighed 297 pounds and had given up hope of ever being happy again. After taking up Yoga, he lost lost 140lbs in just ten months and can not only walk without his canes and leg braces– he can run! Watch his inspirational story below.

It’s a Beautiful World

I hope you enjoyed a look at some of the beauty in the world and that you will discover the beauty all around you, too.

Do you have an inspirational story you’d like to share?

Does your New Year’s resolution list include items like “Donate to Charity” or “Give Back More”? If so, you’re like me! In the past, meeting that goal involved a lot of effort and guilt. Any of these sound familiar to you?

Effort

How I used to feel about donating!

• I want to donate to charity, but which charity?
• How do I know if this organization is a good organization to do donate to?
• Are their overhead expenses low?
• Are they providing a solution that matters?
• I don’t want my donation to be wasted, embezzled, or to hurt people.
• It’s just easier not to donate.
• Or you know what? I always donate to Heifer. I can just send them money again this year.

Guilt

• My friend just asked me to make a donation- should I do it?
• Have I given back enough this year?
• How much have I donated? Have I gotten all the way to November and only gave $50?

One Easy Way

Join a giving circle! Now that I’m part of a giving circle, I don’t worry about those issues anymore.

How I feel now!

Peace of mind

I know that I’m donating $25/month. I’m giving back in an amount that I’m both comfortable with and that’s going to make an impact. When I get requests for other donations, I feel good saying, “No, I donate through my giving circle.”

Easy and Smart

The organizations we donate to have been researched, so I feel good about where my money is going. But I didn’t have to do all that hard work. I shared that responsibility with a bunch of other people, so it was easy!

Join a Giving Circle

A giving circle is a group of people who pool their donations! Find a group of people you like and who care about the same issue. You can check out our virtual giving circles or start your own.

It’s an easy way to mark of this New Year’s Resolution and feel good about how you’re giving back.

I’m not Bill Gates. I’m not Oprah Winfrey or Warren Buffet. They donate a lot of money and are making a huge impact on the problems facing the world. But even though I don’t have their financial resources, the ones I do have are hard-earned and important to me. I’m not willing to just donate that money willy nilly hoping that some good comes out of it.

In fact, I can give like Bill Gates by following these two strategies:

1. Do Research

   When Bill Gates makes a donation, he has teams of people researching the problem and the organizations so that when he decides to act, he knows he’s going to make a huge impact on the problem.

   Have you ever made a donation and didn’t bother to do any research? Me, too. I haven’t done research because I was too busy, it was too hard, I didn’t know where to look, or I trusted the reputation of the organization. But there’s been enough fraud and enough money spent on ineffective programs to know that research is really important.

   A giving circle lets you leverage your time and spread out the work of doing the important research across the entire group.

2. Donate A Lot of Money

   Bill Gates is donating a lot of money, and the sheer volume of money that he puts towards a problem makes an impact.

   But I don’t make large donations at one time. I’ll often just do $25, and so I don’t really feel like I’m making an impact on the problem. But who said we had to go it alone? A giving circle leverages your money so that you donate a lot of money together.

   Maybe you can only give $25, but if you recruit 9 of your friends, then you just donated $250. If you did that every month, in one year you will have donated $3,000. Do you think that $3,000 is going to make a bigger impact than $25? You bet!

Best of all, a giving circle is a profoundly rewarding way to donate money. It’s more fun, because you’re sharing the experience with other people like you who care about the same cause that you care about. And when you’re involved with your donation dollars by researching, voting, and following up on the impact your dollars have made, you experience a whole other level of satisfaction. Donating money isn’t just a responsibility, a duty that we have, it’s a joy.

If you’re inspired to start a giving circle, The Champaign Giving on a Beer Budget EBook. This Ebook will walk you through the 4 steps to starting your own giving circle.

If you’re inspired to be a part of a giving circle, check out existing giving circles to connect with giving circles who are already working on issue that you care about.

A recent Copyblogger post inspired me to think about donating in a different way.  In this post, they write that Alan Alda was explaining why 60 minutes was such a successful news program, and he said that watching the show was

“like eating broccoli that tastes like a hot dog.”

Yes, watching the news is important.  Staying informed is important.  It’s broccoli.  It’s good for you.  BUT, it’s still broccoli.  If it tasted like a hot dog, I would either eat (watch news) a lot more or enjoy eating (watching the news) a whole lot more.

The concept works for charitable donations, too.  Americans are incredibly generous people and donating money is as much a part of who we are and what we believe in as the idea of independence.  Sometimes donating can be like eating broccoli.  We do it because we should, because it’s good for us, because other people expect us to.

Maybe some people would make the argument that you should just eat the broccoli, but I would say, let’s make the broccoli taste like a hot dog.  At Change Gangs, we want donating to taste like a hot dog and here are some of the ways we’ve found to make it a fulfilling, hot dog like experience.

Pooled donations

• Larger checks to organizations
• Bigger impact on charites.
• You are critical in donating hundreds and thousands of dollars.
• You are a part of something significant.

Supportive Community of People Who Care About the Same Cause

• Fun environment with great people
• Benefit from other people’s experience, knowledge, and research
• Feel great about where you’re donating
• Know that you are not alone.

Small Time Committment

• 1 hour per month is all it takes to have a fun and fulfilling donation experience

See that? Does that taste like a hot dog, or what??  What makes donating fun for you?