Watch: How Do I Budget For Charitable Giving?
August 02, 2023
2 min read
Charitable Impact Founder, John Bromley, shares tips on how to build charitable giving into your budget.
John’s take:
Budgeting for charitable giving is really important, but only if you’re already giving something. So, if you’re not yet giving money away, my first suggestion is to just start by giving something. Get in the game. Now that you’re playing the charity game, let’s talk a little bit more about how you get to what might be a comfortable amount for you.
The most sort of sophisticated or natural way is to think about how much you value charitable giving with regard to the causes where you want to create change. This is similar to thinking about how you budget for going out with friends and eating dinner at restaurants. Really think about the type of value and joy it brings you.
Simplifying that down, you might just ask yourself—is there a percentage of my income that I’m willing to give away? If for example, you choose 1% of your income, you’re already going to be way ahead of most Canadians. Another way to look at it is what’s the dollar amount you feel that you can afford on a monthly basis.
So, first, think about how much you value the experience of giving to things that you actually care about and how you can put a number or percentage on that. Think about a percentage of income or dollar value you’re prepared to spend monthly.