Charity through doing instead of giving

Giving to charity is the obvious way of being charitable. But it’s not the only way. In fact, you could avoid giving a single dime to charity and still be very charitable. Instead, you could:

• Buy and share lunch with a homeless person you regularly see on the street.
• Volunteer your time and talents.
• Get the chocolate almonds that a co-worker is selling to support her kid’s sport team.
• Tout the efforts of a particular charity and spread the word about their work through your social media networks.
• Donate clothes and house items to a thrift shop. (Nice stuff, not overused, beaten-up cast-offs!)
• Leave your bottles in the alley for someone else to pick up and cash in.
• Help someone who needs a break by hiring them to do work around your house or yard.
• Cook dinner for friends where the price of entry is $25 towards your favourite charity instead of the usual bottle of wine.

Are you charitable even without giving to charity? Tell us how.

In our next blog, we’ll talk about another way to do this – giving “the gift of charity.”