Giving the gift of charity

Off the start, I’ll cop to despising the term “giving the gift of….” It’s overused these days (downright unbearable around Christmas), but it does work well when you’re talking about giving someone a gift that isn’t that tangible … like charity.

I’m not talking about giving charity in the sense of helping someone out who needs it (a great act unto itself). Instead, I mean giving someone else the chance to be charitable. In the Chimp world, we call these charitable gifts – sending someone money that they get to then use in a charitable way themselves.

By giving this kind of gift, you’re actually being charitable x 2. You’re not only doing something charitable yourself, you’re also inspiring someone else to be charitable.

There are loads of situations where you could give a charitable gift – on your own, as part of a group, or even at work. Here are a few:

1. Your friend doesn’t want any gifts for his birthday, so you chimp him instead. Money that he gets to send to any charity he wants to doesn’t count as a birthday present, right?
2. Your sister volunteers in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side regularly. To support her efforts and to help, chimp her some money to pass on to a charity working in the area.
3. At a dinner party, the hostess admitted she can’t watch any movies where animals are treated badly. As a thank you for the dinner and evening, send her some money through Chimp that she can then send on to the SPCA or another animal-friendly charity.
4. Your book club sets up a Giving Group together, and you all throw in $20 each time you meet. All the money is then sent from the group to whoever hosts, and she gets to send it on to whatever charity she chooses.
5. Coworkers create a Giving Group to pool money for a colleague who’s getting married. Once the “I dos” have been exchanged, send the money on to the couple who can then start their marriage with good karma by giving it away.
6. Players on a soccer team add money to their Giving Group whenever they miss practice, flub an easy goal or gets carded. But if they earn MVP for a game, the group sends that player money to give on to any charity they want.
7. If an employee at a company takes on planning a social event, HR could acknowledge and thank them by chimping them from their Company Fund.
8. Companies could also give “charitable bonuses” for employees who volunteer. HR chimps them $10 for every hour they volunteer in the community.
9. Instead of the regular Christmas basket, a company could send Chimp gifts to their suppliers and partners.

– LST