Helping Our Communities in These Tough Times
by Inna Tysoe on Dec 28, 2008 with 18 Comments
Some ideas on what we can do to help our local communities in these tough economic times.
Since most of have less money and time to spend, how and where we spend both matters a great deal. It matters because most of us simply don’t have the money right now to help charities that aim to save the world. (Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against the world being saved; indeed, I very much want it saved—but right now, I am not sure I can help in any meaningful way.) However, I think I (and most of us here) do have enough money and time right now to help out our local communities. Below then are some suggestions on what you can do to help yourself and others in this time of need.
There are the non-financial things you can do
For example, you can use the search engine www.dogpile.com for simple searches. It is not nearly as good as google (in fact using me reminds me of the bad old days when I needed to use three or even four different search engines to find something) but it’s good enough for simple searches. And dogpile promise to donate money to the SPCA. In fact, when you go to dogpile, you see a counter showing how much money they’ve raised thus far. And, since SPCA (like all other social services) are likely to see an increase in the numbers of dogs and cats they need to take in and a decrease in their funding, this seemed like a worthwhile cause to me.
Join a group of people in your area who are interested in the same things you are. If you don’t know where to start, check out www.meetup.com or Facebook; I am pretty sure you will find something there. Remember, in these times, one of the many things that will be at a premium are social interactions. Through these groups you might well find a group of people with whom to have fun—and having fun, hanging out with friends is very important in these stressful times.
And don’t forget your old friends. Remember to call or e-mail people you maybe haven’t seen in a while. Find out how they’re doing. They’ll appreciate it, trust me.
The financial things you can do
You can try to shop locally as much as possible. Chain stores like Borders and Safeway and Internet giant amazon are almost certain to make it. But can the same be said of the local deli where your neighbors come? We try to patronize the locally owned shops in the area as much as our means allow. When we need dog food, we buy it at the local dog mart (although for supplements and things like that—where there is a huge price differential we go online); ditto with book and sandwiches. It has been a very long time since we bough a Subway sandwich—if we’re going to splurge on a sandwich, it will be a sandwich bought from the local deli.
And here’s an idea for helping yourself and others: shop at charity shop-stores. Whether it’s WEAVE (that helps victims of domestic violence), a charity shop some of whose proceeds go to local alcohol and drug and health clinics, or a shop that helps the local SPCA—you know that the funding for all these places has dried up while demand for their services has increased. So if you shop at a shop that donates to your favorite charity (a charity to which you may not be able to give money this year directly) you will be helping out someone in need and getting stuff much cheaper too.
This year is a bad time for many of us to try to save the world. But perhaps we can try to help our communities.
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Published in: Personal Finance
Jamie Lee | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
Hi, Inna.
I love your article–lots of good advice and suggestions. Thanks!
Jeoffrey Meister | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
Great advice, Inna; thank you.
Glynis Smy | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
Hear Hear! Great advise. We have started walking to our little village shop, we save fuel, get fit and the other day got given a free pot of yoghurt for asking for it in Greek! The experience save us cents, fed us and we gained new friends and street cred in the village. You have some great tips here.
Liane Schmidt | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
Really good ideas, thanks for sharing them!
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
CHAN LEE PENG | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
Very good insight and well-explain!
AC Hamilton III | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
Excellent! Great insights. I also prefer to support the local businesses as I can. I really appreciate the spirit of this.
Debra. | Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
It doesn’t take much to support our communities. My kids often go to the elderly neighbors to help them with whatever they need like, garbage, groceries or even cleaning the animal poo out of their yards. We are also a bike riding family during the summer, it’s easy on gas
This is an excellent article,Inna. With some wonderful tips.
Dee Gold | Dec 29, 2008 | Reply
Little things that we do for others can be a big help.thanks for this wonderful article.
Jasin | Dec 29, 2008 | Reply
Great idea’s, thanks, I’ll try some.
Bo Jack Russo | Dec 30, 2008 | Reply
Good article,Inna,we should help in simple ways that we can.
Yovita Siswati | Dec 30, 2008 | Reply
Hi, I like your ideas of sharing with other people in simple ways. Nice articles!
Moisey Fraynt | Dec 31, 2008 | Reply
Hi Inna.
The ideas are excelent. Now a question will they work?
Happy New Year.
Community member.
hfj | Jan 5, 2009 | Reply
Your right on the money with this article. Our communities and people need help just as bad as any other part of the nation. The problem i have with giving to a lot of worthwhile charities is, only 50 or 60% of your money actually goes to the charity. While the other 50% goes to what they call administration expenses, whatever that means.
Karen Gross | Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
To hft: check out the literature supplied by the charity. Many charities actually spend only 10% on administration expenses. They are able to make use of volunteer office help so that more money gets to the charity. This is true of most child sponsorship programs, which I personally think is a very effective way to improve living conditions for tomorrow as well as today, through education of young people. Do some homework before choosing a charity. I don’t donate to any one that calls me at home.
I don’t know if you have the chain store Ten Thousand Villages, run by the Mennonite Central Committee in Canada. They get their workers in third world countries to buy locally produced art, jewelry, etc. from the people who make them, and they pay a fair price. The products are a bit more expensive than those bought by dealers who pay the local workers a pitance and then sell the goods in our country for less money than it would cost to produce the items here in the land of unions and minimun wage.
trishia | Jan 8, 2009 | Reply
Very informative article.Charity should start at home and community in times like these.
shana | Jan 9, 2009 | Reply
once again i love your writing. i think that everyone should read this and take some advice from it and actually do something. things aren’t going to get better by themselves very nice to see it in writing.
Gijo George | Jan 25, 2009 | Reply
Good thoughts. Your article is successful in focusing the practical things instead of preaching the theory.
Melody Arcamo Lagrimas | Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
Great and helpful tips, thanks, Inna.