In late 2013 I resolved to give more to charity on a regular basis. The trouble is – which charity? There are many charities and I’m sure I support the cause of the majority of them, but funds and time are limited, so the easy option is to pick one or two, and set up regular payments to them. But this, whilst easing the conscience, still leaves a lot of charities unsupported, especially the smaller ones that don’t have the marketing budget to advertise, and also it tends to disconnect me from the charity: my regular payment goes out each month, and I forget all about it.
So I resolved to do something a little different in 2014. Initially I decided that on two days a year I would donate the day’s takings from my company, Chocolate Tortoise Dog Walking and Pet Sitting, for that day to a selected charity. Whilst my daily takings are not large, as the company is just me, it is a relatively significant donation for me, and the fact that I would need to select the charity to donate to each time would keep me involved in the process, and a few more charities would benefit, over and above the ones I give regular donations to.
The concept of “donating a day’s salary” is not new, and many people and organisations on the internet exist doing just that. It would be great if a campaign could be started to get more people doing this, but we all have to start somewhere. A simple search on the internet led me to this site:
http://donateaday.net/
whose author donates a day’s salary EVERY MONTH. Which got me thinking – I could afford a day’s salary every month, couldn’t I? And then more charities would benefit, and needing to select a charity each month would get me even more involved. If my business hit a quiet period and times got harder for me, I could continue to do the same thing, but the donations would be smaller. Conversely as the business did well, the donations would go up.
So there it is. On the first working Monday of every month (Monday is one of my busiest days) I will donate the daily income of Chocolate Tortoise to a selected charity, and post to this blog detailing the charity chosen.
This blog is not intended to tell the world how generous I am. I am less generous than many people. The blog is intended to firstly log who I have donated to, and secondly to hopefully inspire others to do the same, or similar.
Please feel free to comment on the blog, and to suggest charities – especially smaller ones that don’t get much of a mention elsewhere. My only caveat is that the charity be non-religious, non-political and does not endorse mistreatment of animals. I will moderate comments to prevent the blog being taken over by spam messages though. And if this inspires anyone to do the same, add a comment or send me a message – the more people doing this, the more charities will benefit, and hopefully the inspiration will spread.
Happy giving.
Chris
Whilst I usually choose small, local charities, I think Amnesty International is a deserved exception. I don’t agree with everything they do, but I think we need organisations like this to support those in need, and to raise awareness of things going on in the world. Without their work, many atrocities would go unnoticed.
