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 am involved in an organization that promotes love and service, which largely consists of giving my time and energy to people who need my help (and helping myself in the process). Anything we can do that pushes our brains in the direction of helping other people is good for us, because we all spend too much time trying to think away our own problems and that doesn’t work. Helping others makes you feel legitimately virtuous so boosts self-esteem while fulfilling its most important process of getting help to those who need it. Everybody wins…and it also reminds us to be grateful for what we have when we are dealing with those who have so much less. Great article – more like this please
I’m sick of hearing these idiot pro-lifers preach anti-abortion and then not care about the kids once they’re born. My sister had an abortion and they bullied her outside the clinic. It gave her PTSD. So self-righteous and ignorant.
These animals need a better home. I don’t like the idea that they have to be put down!! I hadn’t thought about all this before… I think I’ll foster a couple of cats. Kittens are so cute and they seem a lot easier to care for than dogs.
I’ve been wanting to register to Radius since your last article but I’m not fully convinced. If the process only takes a few minutes, maybe I should really give this a try. I love that they have this option to donate to charities. Radius’ selling point is their financial management and I think that’s what I really need. I suck at checking my finances even though I’ve gone to a lot of seminars in money management. I guess my lifestyle should be toned down or something!
WHOA – you’re moving to Monte Carlo?? SO cool! I’ve been and it’s beautiful.
It seems to me that rich people mostly donate to causes that are big so that their deeds can be recognized. How about small non-profit ones? Their causes are as important as the big ones, also, I would assume there’s less corruption.
Facebook should do something like this all the time. I hope it’s not just about getting people’s credit info. We all know how Facebook is fishy in terms of doing something like this. ?
I tried doing it for a friend before and it worked just fine. Plus, you can always choose the amount you’re willing to give. No one’s forcing you.
Yeah, Facebook is running scams. They’re getting sued for falsely inflating ad views, which is basically stealing money from people who advertise on Facebook! I wish Facebook didn’t exist, but it’s hard to get rid of it.
It breaks my heart that there are so many refugees that need help but only a few people make the effort to help. It’s really great that you did. I think that right now, this is when they really need help.
BTW – Congrats on your move! I bet you’ll love it in Monaco. Can’t wait to read all about it!
I’m single and I’ve been planning to foster or adopt a pet in the future. I’m going to be transfering to a new apartment in a few months and I could foster/adopt one soon. I’m actually very excited because I hate being alone at home and a companion would be really great. I used to think adopting puppies would be better because I want them to stay alive alonger, so dog age would be really important for me… But I was thinking that even older dogs deserve to be loved too! ?❤️
My wife has been constantly telling me about Radius and telling me that I should switch banks just like she did.
Cool – you should try it. I’m an even bigger fan now that they launched Superhero Checking. 🙂
Hey! You responded! Cool beans. It’s on my list of stuff to do. Gotta do a bit more research first. Switching banks and learning a new platform isn’t something I’d take lightly, and I need time to look into it more first. 😉
Aww these poor animals don’t deserve to be killed just because no one would adopt them.