For many people, when they think about their personal finance plans, they think about what they need to save money for, how they want to invest, and how to pay off their debt. But once you get out of survival mode with your finances, you can begin branching out a bit more and giving back to organizations that have had a positive impact on your life or things that are important to you.
If you’re wanting to start doing more with charitable donations and giving back more of your money, here are three tips for making charitable donations as part of your personal finance plan.
Thoroughly Research The Charity
Before you give any of your hard-earned money to a charity, even one that you feel like you’ve heard a lot about and assume that you can trust, you’ll want to thoroughly research that organization so that you know everything you can about it.
Unfortunately, many charities don’t give as much of the money they receive to the actual cause they’re supporting as people might think. They might also do different things with the money that you hadn’t necessarily intended with your donation. So before you write a check or give another type of donation, make sure you know who’s using your money and that you have a good idea of what that money is going toward and being used for. And because there are so many different charities that do similar work, like feeding kids or supporting police officers, you can likely find a reputable charity for any cause you believe in.
Consider A More Strategic Approach
While you can always just donate money to a charity whenever you want to, there are other, more strategic ways that you can donate to the charity of your choice without allowing your emotions to dictate your decisions too much.
Some of the options for more strategic charitable donations could include things like charitable gift annuity, a donor-advised fund, a retained life estate, charitable trust, or a private family foundation. Depending on what your personal finance strategies and goals are, one or more of these might prove to be more beneficial for you or make more sense with what you’re trying to accomplish and the amount of money you’re looking to donate.
Include Charities In Your Will
In addition to giving money or other charitable assets to charity throughout your life, you can also include charities in your will so that you can bequeath more money or assets to them.
When you’re living, you need to be careful with your money so that you have enough to continually survive on. But when you’re no longer here, you may want to give an even bigger portion of your money to the charity of your choice so that you can help make the world a better place for future generations.
If you’re wanting to make charitable donations a bigger part of your personal finance plans and strategies, consider implementing some of the tips mentioned above to help you in doing this.
