Donations to Haiti May Be Deductible on 2009 Returns

According to a recent post on a New York Times blog, “If you made a charitable contribution to the relief effort in Haiti, you may be able to claim a deduction on your 2009 tax return.”

Normally, contributions are deductible only for the same tax year in which they are made. But both houses of Congress moved quickly to make an exception, which allows taxpayers who itemize their tax deductions to deduct their donations on their 2009 returns for qualified Haiti disaster relief. President Obama is expected to sign the measure shortly.”

If you plan on making these deductions, be sure to keep your receipts! “Generally, a bank record or written communication from the charity will suffice, but it should include the charity’s name, along with the date and amount of the contribution. If you made a donation through your cellphone via text message, keep your telephone bill, which must also show the name of the organization and the date and amount of your donation.”

This news is interesting, but I personally did not give my charitable donation for the aid of Haiti to get a tax write-off, I gave money because I found it so sad that fellow human beings are suffering after experiencing such hardship after a natural catastrophe. So far, I have sent a donation to the American Red Cross and a text message donation to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti organization. I plan to give two more donations to Habitat for Humanity and Doctors Without Borders during the month of February. It has been a goal for me to do charitable giving on a monthly basis for a long time, and making small donations for Haiti has just been a way for me to jumpstart the process.

Donate to Relief Efforts to Help Haiti

As I'm sure you have heard on the news in the last day or so, Haiti has suffered a 7.0 earthquake that severly impacted the nation. Reports on exactly how many people have been affected by the earthquake are still coming in from media outlets. A donation to charities that are assiting with relief efforts will be included in my budget this month and I hope you'll make room in your budget as well:

Click here to donate to UNICEF’s relief efforts.
Click here to donate to Wyclef’s charity, Yele Haiti.
Click here to donate to the Red Cross.

Why Every Young Professional Should Volunteer for a Non Profit

Non profits that serve disadvantaged youth in urban areas is a bit of a growing passion of mine. I've donated my time to two organizations that have missions that involve this population in the two years since I've graduated from college. But I believe that all young professionals can benefit from volunteering for a non profit that serves a cause they believe in for the following reasons:

Gives you an opportunity to take on a leadership role you may not be privy to if you are a junior staff member at you full time gig. Since I have been working professional for less than three years, I am still pretty low on the totem pole in my day job. I succeeded in getting "assistant" out of my job title, but I still have a supportive role to my superiors. I am able to take on a leadership role I would not yet be considered for because of my lack of work experience for the non profit I volunteer for. I am currently a member of a board of directors of a non profit that two friends started in my hometown and lead a committee that has duties that definitely translate to applicable work experience.

Gives you an opportunity to add meaningful work experience to your resume. I have developed writing samples and lead projects for both of the non profits I have volunteered for that are now on my resume. Doing things such as leading a committee, planning events, writing media and marketing materials, among other things definitely belong on my resume. Whatever your skills are: writing, planning events, designing websites, networking, fundraising, mentoring or teaching youth, cooking...you see where I'm going with this, we all have skills that could be very useful to a non profit organization and could also help move your career along.

Offers opportunities to network with seasoned professionals...this could translate to a job opportunity. Whenever I have the opportunity, I chat up professionals that I meet at conferences or other settings and tell them about what I am doing for the non profit. Sometimes seasoned professionals can be inspired to donate time or money or even mentor you so you can make a greater impact to the organization or cause you are volunteering for. I believe that networking is about helping each other out, not waiting to contact someone when you need something like a job, for more info about networking, I would suggest reading the book, Never Eat Alone which I had heard about from Ginger over at Girls Just Wanna Have Funds a few months back. Build these relationships now and they could later translate to a job or introductions to other professionals.

Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Making a difference in your local community or on a national or global scale can make you feel good about yourself. Giving back is a good feeling you don't just have to save up for the holiday season, you can feel good about giving back any time of the year. Yes, I could probably find freelance gigs that pay me to do some of the things I do for the non profits, but making money is not what drives me to do what I do, its getting that warm, fuzzy feeling that I am making a difference (be it large or small) in someone's life.

Revisiting the budget

There was one key aspect of my budget that I overlooked...tithing and charitable giving. Oops. I know I could give more if I factored it into my budget. My tithing and charitable giving is pretty haphazard, but I will do better in the future with that. My charitable giving for at least the next several months will consist of donating money to the non-profit organization I volunteer for. I will evaluate other organization's I want to give money to at a later date.

For now, I will designate 50% of my side-gig income (which was not factored into my budget on purpose)for charitable giving. The other %50 of my side-gig income will have to get thrown toward paying down debt faster. My credit card balances have been woefully creeping up this month. I paid for travel for a trip out of town for my job which I will be reimbursed for soon. I also recently paid for airfare for a family trip to Florida in August. I need to make some more progress on that front this summer. After I monitor my spending for the next month or so, I will probably tweak my budget a little more.

Do you calculate tithing or charitable giving into your budget?