Charity 2008

I just made what will probably be my final charitable contribution for 2008. I had taken a tag off our town's Giving Tree, which was sponsored by our local Department of Family Protective Services. I didn't really understand what I was supposed to be buying so I called the DFPS office and asked about my gift recipient. Turns out he is sixteen years old and has been in the foster care system since he was two. The woman with whom I spoke told me that she had personally transported this child to a group home a couple of weeks ago and that he was dressed in rags. She said the home managed to get together some things for him but that his situation was pretty sad. She gave me all his sizes and off I went to the local Bealls. I bought tennis shoes, jeans, shirts and a winter coat; all to the tune of $161. I felt wonderful and don't regret one penny that I spent.

As I'm finishing out my 2008 spreadsheet my charitable contributions for the year ended up being more than double my goal. I feel good about where I ended up. I'm going to be reviewing all the items in my spreadsheet for the past year and seeing where I can make adjustments. I'm not happy about the end result in several of my categories but charity isn't one of them. I also volunteer locally for several organizations and I'm not sure what value to put on that but, overall, for next year I'm going to up my goal so that it is a higher percentage of my total income.

Where we give, how we give and whether we give tends to spark a lot of controversy. Nevertheless, doing for others really makes me feel good and I intend to keep doing it!