By Chris Roberts | September 2, 2020

When it finally comes time to donate to a charity, oftentimes there are many questions that go into your decision on where you want to allocate your money to go. We have heard every question under the sun and wanted to shed some light on how to navigate the difficult questions as you are planning on how you want to impact a charity.

1. What Charity should I donate to? This is a really hot topic as of the last 10 years. The reason for this is that some charities work better than others for the community they serve. We have giant charity corporations that take huge profits off the top, we have full non profit charity options, but at the end of the day the question is really what do you align yourself with and want to contribute to? That is the first step in finding out what charity you want to donate to. I know personally I feel better donating to a charity that I can relate to or that my ideals align with. So first think of what you want this money to achieve, do you want to help a third world country you may never see, or do you want to generate results on a more local level that you can see the impact in your community?

2. Which Charity is the Best? This one also aligns with what you want to achieve. I will speak from my personal experience. There are three charities in my lifetime I have been thoroughly involved with. The names will be left blank as your money needs to go to what works best for you.

• Music Based, I grew up and this non-profit helped my family be able to afford music lessons for me when I was about 14 years old. That turned into a lifelong passion for me to keep chasing music and enjoying the creating process.
• Health Based, when I worked in the automotive industry we sponsored at the time a very small very local foundation that was meant to relieve financial load on patients currently going through cancer treatments. Nobody in my family had died of cancer, but my girlfriend’s mom at the time had gone through it, so it was really powerful to be able to see the foundation help others and help her household in their time of need.
• Community Based, oftentimes there are local community programs that might be before or after school programs that operate as a charitable foundation and by allocating funds to this area it can help buy a kid breakfast, lunch, or get tutoring they need to be set up for success.

The single most important thing to be happy with your charitable donation, is to take some time to find a cause that aligns with you. Because donating to something you believe in, does influence your happiness and future donation potentials. Now the really cool thing here at Community Pay it Forward is you get to choose the charity that we donate your portion to. So when you purchase a service from one of our sponsors, a certain portion or % goes to the charity of YOUR CHOICE. This gives you the power of getting things done that already need to be purchased, and getting a donation that costs no extra. We have pre-determined them in our contracts and our clients do not charge you more for it.

We look forward to answering more of your questions!