It is easy to make donations, whether you regularly pop into charity shops or round up your purchase at your local supermarket or restaurant. However, these are not meaningful donations. A meaningful donation happens when you actively think about the charity that you are donating to and how your donation will help them and those in need. Then, here is a guide to transform all of your donations into meaningful ones.

1.   Give to a Charity That is Close to You

The first step that you should take is to make a list of all the charities that you are passionate about. These could be charities that have helped you or a loved one in the past or those which always grab your attention on the television. You might also pick charities whose morals and missions you believe in. For instance, they might support an underprivileged or minority group that you are part of.

2.   Make a Donation in Your Will

Rather than simply making off-hand donations every so often or putting a few pennies into a donation box each time, you should consider making a donation in your will. Leaving some of your financial legacy to a charity can allow you to give more to them than you would be able to in life. It can also mean that you will make a positive difference in the world even after passing on. However, you need to plan this donation well in advance. To do this, you should speak to a solicitor about making changes to your will, listing the charity in question as a beneficiary. This means that everything is legally in order when it is time to divide your finances. Macmillan offer free wills to enable you to undertake this easily.

3.   Research the Charity in Question

To make a meaningful charitable contribution, though, you need to research the non-profit organisation in question before you do anything else. Although you might believe that all charities are good and have people’s best interests at heart, this is not the case, and some have harmful or outdated values or give to dangerous causes. To research a specific charity and check that you trust them, you should Google their name and look at previous press releases and articles about them. You should also look at websites that review charities to see whether yours is listed and try to find details about the progress that they have made throughout their history.

4.   Think About Whether a Donation is Best

Before you give your donation and sign away your hard-earned money, you also need to step back and think carefully about whether giving money is your best course of action. In some situations, volunteering your time or raising funds for them might enable you to do more for the charity in question and might help them a lot compared to the impact that a few coins could have. However, a donation is still the right path to take if you are struggling to find the time or the resources to aid the non-profit that you are passionate about in any other way.

Author Bio:

Georgina M. A writer interested in the latest financial and investment tricks, she is also enthusiastic about adventure, travel, and entertainment, such as theatre, books, and films.