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Charity work infuses society with care, compassion, and a sense of connection to others. Perhaps this is why participating in charity work is one of the biggest generators of happiness and fulfillment.

Charity work is essential for communities and society. It fills in the gaps left by Government and the private sector.

Charities create social cohesion, civic engagement, and personal self-development.

Charity work doesn’t generate huge profits or windfalls for shareholders. It does, however, create priceless and intangible social value.

Charity work isn’t just to serve the destitute. Charities touch everyone’s life. They give us ways to express our ideals. They help us connect with each other on terms that are non-transactional.

As human beings, we have natural inclinations towards doing good. We want to improve the world around us, influence society, and share our ideals.

Charity work gives us this opportunity. One of the joys of charitable activities, is connecting with others based on our deep values.

It can be difficult to do that. It isn’t always socially appropriate for us to talk about what moves us, what we feel strongly about, what we want to change, or what we think others should also value.

Use it to express your passions, to win others over, and to find new missions that speak to you.

This is a place where you can post about your favorite charities, contribute to non-profits, and volunteer to help local organizations in need.

Contributing to Local Charities

Local charities and non-profits are in dire need of help right now.

Despite all the important work they do, these small organizations tend to be underfunded. And that’s when times are good.

With the pandemic, their revenues have dropped. However, demand for charitable services is skyrocketing.

Domestic violence, hunger, and loss of employment is rampant. Stress, fear, and anxiety are causing a hidden mental health epidemic. Pets are also being abandoned at high rates. There are so many people, causes, and animals suffering. Charities can’t begin to cope with the need without help.

One reason they’re suffering right now, is due to cancelled campaigns. Covid-19 restrictions make it difficult for them to fundraise in the ways they normally would.

Local charities often rely on one or two fundraising drives, for contributions that will sustain them through the year. Missing out on this, means they have little or no funds to work with.

Many local charities traditionally fundraise through in-person events and activities. Community events, school partnerships, and workplace promotions are typical. These methods of fundraising have been completely removed.

Other charities traditionally raise funds through physical mail campaigns. Covid-19’s thrown the post-office into disarray. Many people are also hesitant to receive physical mail. Without this staple fundraising line, charities who rely on traditional fundraising have completely lost their income source.

Charities aren’t businesses. They don’t have access to the emergency financing that many small businesses are relying on to stay afloat. There are no government agencies doling out PPP funds for non-profits.

These small local charities are on their own. If they are going to survive this crisis, it will only be with our help.

You can give them your assistance simply by posting about them here, or by contributing a donation.

Benefits of Contributing to Local Charities

Charities need donations. It can often seem like we are doing them a one-sided favor. But, there are many surprising benefits of making purely financial donations.

Research done at the University of Oregon, shows that donating activates our brain’s reward center. It stimulates the same pleasure centers that many drugs do. Purely altruistic charitable contributions elicit neural activity in the brain’s reward processing areas. This creates a “warm glow” effect. This warm glow effect actively keeps civil society together. Our societies can only function when we are willing to contribute their money to matters that don’t directly affect us.

Donating money strengthens our personal values and ethics. This is one of the major reasons why we give. Directly supporting the values we feel passionate about, empowers and strengthens us. When we give for altruistic purposes, we strengthen our sense of spirituality, faith, and love.

Giving improves our self-esteem. Donating money leads to greater feelings of happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and empowerment. It’s important that we feel we can meaningfully contribute to the world. Generosity improves our long-term health, well-being, and happiness.

It makes us better overall. We don’t just get a temporary stimulated rush from giving. Prosocial behavior, meaning actively choosing to give to others over ourselves, seems to flip a “philanthropy switch” in the brain. Actively giving to others, makes us more resilient, resourceful, and successful.

It’s true that many philanthropists are already ultra-wealthy people.

But there is a clear link between generosity and becoming successful. Generosity is a state of mind. It promotes stewardship, leadership, and discipline. We can choose to be generous people at any time. A good way to become generous is to form a regular habit of giving small donations. This will retrain our brains into generous thinking patterns.

How to Raise Funds for Your Favorite Charity

You can raise funds for your favorite charity right here, simply by posting about it. Soon we will be directly raising funds for non-profits. Until then, you can start by getting them awareness and winning support.

Storytelling is important. Stories move us, connect us, and transport us. Storytelling is the best way to get us to develop understanding and empathy for other people.

Storytelling hits our brains. A good story engages the whole brain, releases oxytocin, promotes empathy, and stays in our memories.

Sharing stories is fundamental to who we are as human beings. Some say that the ability to tell a good story is what makes us human.

The best way to raise funds for a charity right now, is to tell a powerful story about it.

Here are some techniques you can use to raise support for a charity when posting here:

Tell us about their mission
Tell us about one person who was helped
Tell us why you’re invested
Share something that surprised you
Tell us how you were changed.
Tell us about a challenge, the response, and the change.

Do you have a charity in mind already? I’m sure you do.

Why don’t you share which one it is right now?

Local Charities Request Volunteers

Is there a charity you’d like to support, but feel unable to help financially? You aren’t the only one a little tight on funds.

Money isn’t the only thing people have to offer. You can give your time, presence, skills, knowledge, or just support and love. The social impact of volunteering can’t be overstated.

Volunteering integrates us into our local communities. It forms strong bonds across different social sectors. Right now, we need the spirit of volunteerism more than ever.

Charities can’t work without willing volunteers. Volunteers are the ones who create the impact. And they receive many personal benefits in return.

Volunteering is good for your personal health. It improves the mood, lowers stress, and sharpens memory.

Volunteering also increases your personal social skills and emotional IQ. It exposes you to new people, often from different backgrounds than you.

These differences can be socioeconomic, racial, or just in terms of personality style. Meeting new people through a shared cause is a great way to find common ground.

Seniors tend to volunteer the most. However, safety restrictions currently leave them unable to do so. As others begin to fill in, more people than ever are realizing the value of simply being there for someone else.

If you’re willing to share your time, expertise, and presence with others, you can sign up to volunteer for local charities here.

Charity work protects and strengthens local communities. When safety nets or social ties break down, we have to rely on the willingness of strangers for help.

Small regional charities and non-profits are the ones who immediately step in during crisis. They’re agile, close to the ground, and have better insight on what’s needed.

These groups are also the most vulnerable themselves. They don’t have splashy national campaigns, large corporate support, or major subsidies. These groups rely on smaller, private donations from individuals willing to contribute.

Right now, we can all pull together to help local charities, just by posting about them. We can bring awareness to their mission and tell others what we love about them.

Soon we’ll be able to raise funds directly for charities. It’s always good when we can contribute donations to charities, but there are other ways to assist charity work.