After moving from Toronto to Manhattan and then trying out life in France, we’ve decided to relocate to Monte Carlo, which is a very international (and English-speaking!) city on the Mediterranean (aka. the French Riviera / Côte d’Azur). If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I put a lot of work into my apartment in France — but hey, onward and upward, right!? The fact that our apartment in France is 250m2 (about 2700 square feet of space) and we’re downsizing to a more reasonable 100m2 in Monte Carlo, meant that we needed to quickly offload a lot of our furniture.
When we moved from NYC we donated everything, but I didn’t know of a charity in France that would pick everything up, so I listed our furniture for sale. Then I got an email from a fellow expat named Barbara who, along with 25 friends, started a charity called ActForRef to help refugees. They assigned each person in their new charity with a task, and committed to spending at least eight hours per week doing that task. Her task was to find people who are moving and ask if they have things to donate. She then picks them up and stores them until she can find a refugee who needs that particular type of item.
Listening to her talk was inspiring. She told me how she was dismayed about how the USA is treating refugees, and so she wanted to do her part to try to balance out the negative with some positive, and show that there are plenty of Americans who will be a friend to refugees. When a refugee came to pick up my refrigerator, he shook my hand and looked truly touched. I’ll never forget that moment.
My hubby and I have always seen the value in helping charities. When I was a kid, my parents encouraged me to volunteer and I spent my allowance money buying up small pieces of the rainforest and adopting elephants. I even had a pen-pal in Africa (yes, we wrote to each other on — get this — paper!) and I helped pay for her schooling. You may think you need to spend thousands to help a charity, but in reality every dollar makes an impact.
I’m a firm believer that it’s everyone’s duty to give in whatever way they can manage. That’s why we’re gifting everything we have to charities when we croak (since we’re not having kids). But we also look for ways to give back that go beyond just reaching into our pockets. For example, in high school I volunteered at the local animal shelter. It was sad to see all the animals in cages, but worth it because I knew that the time I spent with them made a big difference to these sweet furry beings. In NYC, my hubby and I kept the trend going by volunteering to drive cats from a shelter to a pet store each weekend for adoption day.
If you’re interested in getting involved in charity too, here are a few other ideas that I love (that don’t involve digging into your wallet):
BECOME A SUPERHERO
By signing up for Radius’ new Superhero Checking, your interest will be matched by Radius (Earn 0.50% APY on balances of $2,500 or more — yes, you’ll make money, too) in the form of a donation to March of Dimes every month. 1% of your total purchases each month made using your Radius debit card will also be donated to March of Dimes. That, combined with the fact that I can use any ATM in the world for free, there are no monthly maintenance fees, it works with mobile wallets, and their app is IMHO the best out there, is just part of the reason why Radius is my favorite bank. Signing up takes less than 5 minutes and you can fund your account with as little as $100. After that, there’s no minimum balance required.
In case you’re not familiar with March of Dimes, they’re a wonderful charitable organization that leads the fight for the health of all moms and babies by:
- Supporting research toward solutions that ensure every baby is born healthy
- Advocating for policies that prioritize the health of moms and babies
- Providing resources and programs to help moms before, during and after pregnancy
- Educating medical professionals on known solutions to improve the care that moms and babies receive
- Uniting local communities across the nation through events and collaboratives
- Partnering with organizations and companies committed to helping moms and their families
MAKE A NEW FRIEND
If you spend much time on Facebook, then you probably already know that there are lots of cats and dogs who desperately need a forever home. Right now, animal shelters are filled to the brim with wonderful animals who would make great pets. But these shelters only have so many cages, and since they’re pretty much always full, the cats and dogs that have been there the longest get killed because there’s no longer space for them. So tragic! But that’s where you come in…
You can do something called ‘fostering’, and save lives. It’s as simple as picking out a cat or dog (or several) that you agree to keep in your home until they get adopted. You’ll be getting these furry little balls of love out of cages and giving them a chance at a great life via adoption. It’s also a great lesson for kids, and a great way to add some warmth and life to your apartment if you’re single. Here’s more about how to get hooked up with a foster.
MAKE YOUR BIRTHDAY CHARITABLE
Once a year you have a unique opportunity to get all your friends to care about something. You! Now, why not take advantage of this chance to convert all that enthusiasm into action. You don’t need to run a marathon to ask for donations, you just need to be on Facebook. Here’s how the platform works: Two weeks before your birthday, Facebook shows a prompt in your news feed that gives you the option to create a fundraiser for one of 750,000 available nonprofit organizations. You can set a goal amount and create a custom message and, on your birthday, your friends receive a notification inviting them to donate to your chosen cause. After someone donates, they receive a receipt via email. Their name and the amount of their contribution will be shared with the charity as well as with the creator of the fundraiser.
Now how easy is that?!
I really wish that there was a better and quicker way to remedy this issue in animal shelters. I do know that they’re doing their best to take care of these animals but it can be too much sometimes. There are too many animals that aren’t taken care of. I wish people would adopt instead of buying from breeders!
These are really great ideas and they’re very easy to do. Honestly, if you don’t have a lot of time to do volunteering, you can easily just donate to charities and it doesn’t have to be millions. Donate any amount that your big heart can possibly give.?
During my birthdays, I actually ask for old clothes and stuff from my friends and family that can I can donate instead of a proper wishlist. I find that it also encourages them to do something good instead. It gives all of us a sense of purpose.
This is a very nice idea compared to using Facebook as a tool for getting donations. We all know how Facebook isn’t safe in terms of their security and most of us would avoid putting our credit card details there.
I just did some research and Radius bank is really amazing and people-oriented. I love how they really help their users be financially responsible and socially responsible all at the same time. Personally, it’s their app and interface that I really love because it’s so easy to navigate and the features are just the bomb. ?I’m not very knowledgeable with charities and I would honestly have a hard time trying to figure out which ones I should donate to since I’m not exactly very rich either and my main option is to choose among the ones that really need it. Big thanks for narrowing the options down for me.
If only my apartment allows pets, I would really foster animals. I also volunteer in local shelters and help them create awareness about fostering pets during weekends but I guess that’s as far as I can go. I’ve fallen in love with those furbabies for a long time now and it’s really painful to see that most of them don’t always get adopted.?
You could always foster until your landlord gets wind of it. Maybe your landlord would be cool with it since it’s just temporary.
I haven’t heard March of Dimes before but it has a really great purpose. Don’t we all just love mothers and their babies? Medical help is what they need, especially for those who can’t really afford it.
I always see you post about this Radius bank and I wasn’t convinced to sign up until this post. I’ve always had a knack for helping but I didn’t know how to do it properly.
Just like what the article said, we just have to help in every way possible. It doesn’t always have to be thousands and millions.
Refugees really need help. It’s a lot like losing everything and you can’t even do anything about it. It’s really sad and devastating. If I was really rich and all, I wouldn’t mind giving them more than just furniture. These people don’t deserve to be treated like that, nobody does. I don’t know what’s gotten in the head of our president… I would also like to help these refugees even though I don’t have much to give. I just want to give them anything that I could possibly give even if I don’t have enough as well. All we need in this world is kindness, not exactly money.
I feel the same way! It’s such an awful situation. A lot of migration is caused by climate change too, which we can all help mitigate by cutting down on the animal products (dairy and meat) that we consume.
The animal shelter fostering is very close to my heart. I’ve been volunteering for years and I swear, fostering them really makes a difference. These animals are very special and they’re very loving. It would be great if all of them had loving families and homes to live in.
That “Be a Superhero” line is super catchy! I admire you and your hubby, Hilary. You always try your best to help the world and you always have a greater cause in everything you do. More power! ?