The 5 Best Ways to Donate to Charity
With Christmas just around the corner, you might be looking forward to a festive season of parties and presents. Not everyone’s so lucky though. Switch on the news and you’ll hear stories of suffering from around the world or take a walk through your local town and see people without homes to call their own. If you want to do your bit to help, why not give to a good cause? There is a range of charities to donate to out there, and it’s never been easier to make donations. Here are five of the best ways to make your contribution.
1. Set up payments online
One of the simplest ways to donate is to set up payments online. Simply go to the website of your chosen charity and follow the instructions provided. Many charities give you the option of making one-off or regular payments. For example, the humanappeal website enables you to set up single or monthly contributions, and it allows you to choose from specified sums or set your own amount. This process takes a matter of moments and it’s a great way to give money.
As well as donating directly to charities, you can make payments online through special donation websites, such as JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving and BT MyDonate.
2. Make one-off donations by mobile text
Another quick and convenient way to make donations is to set up one-off payments on your phone. Lots of charities launch special appeals that allow you to text a code to a number in order to make a single payment. All you need is your mobile phone and the relevant code. It’s always worth checking the terms and conditions, but in most cases you should find that mobile providers offer this service for free, meaning that 100 per cent of the money you give goes to the charity you’re donating to.
3. Arrange transfers through your bank
Prefer a more traditional approach? Why not set up a transfer through your bank? To do this, you’ll need to know the bank your charity uses, the account name and number, and the sort code. Then you can simply decide how much you’d like to give and whether you want to set the payment up as a one-off or make it a regular contribution in the form of a standing order.
4. Donate by post
You can also keep things traditional by donating by post. It’s still possible to send cheques or drafts to most charities. Just make sure you make your cheque or draft payable to the relevant organisation and send it to the correct address. This can be a simple way to make a single payment if you want to avoid going online or using your mobile.
5. Give your time and become a volunteer
Bear in mind that charities don’t only encourage financial contributions. Many are also looking for enthusiastic helpers for their campaigns. So, if you’ve got a little spare time and you’d like to put it to good use, why not consider volunteering? There are lots of different roles available. For example, you might be able to put your marketing skills to use or help your chosen charity to stage events. As well as benefiting charities, volunteering can be rewarding and it can help you to enhance your CV – so it really is a win win.
*This is a collaborative post
I like to donate to charity and I have done everything from fundraising to putting money in a box. Online payments is a good idea.
We do online payments with St. Jude. Right now there are so many fun gifting opportunities for Christmas <3
These are all great ways to give to charity. I like donating my time to a cause that I believe in, like the American Cancer Society!
These are great suggestions. I think we should all at some point do something for charity. Donations are always a good thing to do.
My mom still writes a check for all of her donations. I am more likely to go online or do an automatic withdraw.
So important this time of year to find ways to give!!! These are all amazing ways to give this time of year!!
I love that you shared this. I don’t think people realize how easy it is to donate now-a-days! There are also so many different things worth donating to!
No it is so easy now and can only take a second and can be such a small amount that makes such a big difference to the recipient.
donating is always big for me. I like to give what I know is needed. There are places that have people that have need of something right in your house. I clear out my cupboards at the end of each year to donate cans or boxes of food I have too many of.
That is such a good idea, we end up with a lot of stuff in the dogs cupboard someone locally was doing a run to a local dogs home with some bits so we took all the extras over to her.
Instead of financial contributions, I prefer to volunteer. I’m not sure if all the donated money goes to a right place but I know that I can help out my community by giving them my time.
I always like to volunteer for a charity before donating. It gives me a good behind the scenes look at how they spend their money and time promoting their charity. Great tips!
Good, simple advice. So often we think, “Oh yeah! I’ll give something, without following through. Giving, with no expectation of reward is still the most satisfying way to be thankful for our blessings……….and we do have so many.
I love donating and giving back to charities, especially around the holidays. I volunteer at my local animal shelter each week and it feels so good knowing I’m helping so many animals.
We are a family of donating time and effort to those in need. I make this a huge priority for my children as well they do not have a option and must put aside “service” hours every month to help others.
I love giving back! These are great ways…. no excuses!
Volunteering is a great way to be thankful in life! And it really a helpful to the needed ones. 🙂
These are great ways to donate to charity. I like to volunteer for causes that I support!
These are all great ways to give back to the community! I also donate to local food and clothing banks as well as give 2 extra backpacks full of school supplies for the grade my son is in! One for a girl and one for a boy. So many great ways to give!
My favourite way is number five. There is something special about being involved in the grits of things and seeing first hand how different other peoples lives are.
We pay tithing to our church which sends out money all over the world to help out. We spend much of our time giving of service. Time and energy spent helping someone else always feels good.
Volunteering has always been a big part of my life and my husbands since we were young. I’m actually going to be making some gift donations to an amazing organization nearby that helps victims of domestic violence. Love this post!
I used to love volunteering, sadly I can’t do much any more 🙁 but I do try and do things to help when I can.
Such a refreshing post to read something real and interesting! Helpful suggestions!
I like to volunteer a lot. We don’t have a ton of extra money to donate so I know that a helping hand is sometimes just as good as gold. Great list!
We are the same, I can’t volunteer like I used to though sadly, but we do what we can.
I love giving online. It’s so convenient. I also help out locally by giving to food banks, etc. and our church adopted an orphanage in Haiti that we give to on a regular basis. We recently purchased their back-to-school uniforms and all their school supplies.
Oh wow that is awesome, what an amazing thing for your church to have done, I bet it is really interesting knowing how things go as well.
I’m often put off when someone comes to the door, and gives the usual talk, which usually ends with “don’t suppose you’ve won the lottery recently”. So I’ve never considered setting up a regular payment through my bank, I rely on charity boxes and events. However, seems like a good way to do it, and worth looking in to.
I’m the same not a fan at all of people who just knock on the door, I don’t like being put on the spot.
I always volunteer with certain charities I am keen on, but the other suggestions on how to donate is very helpful! Thanks for this. = )