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?!
This feels very out-of-touch. Most people will never be blessed with the ability to make the world better. Truth is most Americans live sad lives one paycheck away from homelessness. Most people can’t afford to open a new bank account, or to pay for dog food for their foster dog. Why don’t you write tips that everyone can do, instead of just the elite?
Thanks for your honesty. I think that these are things that most people *can* do. Especially the Facebook birthday fundraiser. 🙂 And as for Radius, they don’t have a minimum balance, so anyone can do that too.
Moving is one heck of a task and nothing makes clutter clearing easier than donating them to the ones who need them.
That’s why donating is such a wonderful pursuit, it helps other people while freeing you of stuff you don’t need any longer.
I promise one day I will adopt a dog!!!
Follow your own life and what you want to be and you will plenty of possibilities of making a change with your friends family and the world. Don’t hurry so much-be wise instead. So you don’t do mistakes and then you will be able to know how to make the world better.
Most people who make a positive change doesn’t do it by wanting to make a change. They follow their own life and somewhere on the way they are blessed with having possibilities of making a change.
She has a lot of good points, however going into finance (I think Hilary’s husband is in finance) only for the sake of earning money to donate does not resonate with my values.
To give, should you not have something? I agree that it is your view but how can you make enough money to give to others?
That refugee must feel really great that he got your stuff. Most of your things don’t look cheap at all and they must think they’re expensive.
Fundraisers are the easiest way to donate. A lot of people don’t know where to donate so they end up not donating at all. Your initiative in doing it and helping them by leading their money where it should go is a good start.
I’m one of those people who don’t know how or where to donate. I do try local charities that are close to where I live but sometimes I feel like I have to expand my reach.
I signed up for Radius after deliberating for a month (after reading about them in another one of your articles). I purchase so much with my Radius card and that 1% can be a really big thing that can be donated to March of Dimes. I’m going to figure out how to change my account to a superhero one. It’s so amazing because you can treat it as some sort of “cash back” to those who really need help. Us ladies love to shop but we forget how important it is to also show appreciation to other people, even animals. If you can’t volunteer in charities, it doesn’t end there. Find a way to give others the opportunity to receive the things they need in any form of help.
Facebook has that feature? That would be really nice to try on my next birthday. All I have to do is click that option and people will do the rest!