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Social Science Philanthropy & Charity

How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist

330 Ways to Make a Difference in Your Home, Community, and World–at No Cost!

by (author) Nicole Boles

Publisher
Workman Publishing Company
Initial publish date
Nov 2009
Category
Philanthropy & Charity, Inspiration & Personal Growth
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780761158318
    Publish Date
    Nov 2009
    List Price
    $12.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780761155041
    Publish Date
    Nov 2009
    List Price
    $13.95

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Description

Want to help make your community, your town—your world—a better place, but don’t know where to begin? How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist shows you the way. A handbook, a resource guide, a call to action, and an inspiration, it offers 330 concrete, direct ideas for making a difference—all of which have nothing to do with the size of your checkbook and everything to do with using the hidden assets that are already a part of your life. Whether you’re shopping, working, exercising, or surfing the Web, there are hundreds of ways to slip small but deeply meaningful acts of philanthropy into your life, using 330 of the most innovative and effective charitable organizations around.

Have an old pair of sneakers lying around the house? Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program will recycle them into safe playground surfaces. getting rid of that old cell phone? Call to Protect will refurbish it as an emergency lifeline for abused women. Racking up frequent-flier miles? Donate them to an ill child so they can travel and get the care they need. Like to knit? Knit hats for cancer patients. Start a petition, sign a petition, send out an awareness e-mail, and network with like-minded givers and doers at Care2.com. There are ideas for giving things you might never have thought of—your hair, old prom dress, breast milk for African AIDS orphans. Ideas for using your hobbies, talents, time, trash, technology, and more. Each suggestion can be accomplished in the course of a day, most within an hour. In tough times it’s more important than ever that people and communities pull together— How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist makes it easier than ever before.

About the author

Nicole Bouchard Boles is an expert in no-cost philanthropy and works with companies and individuals to help incorporate giving into their everyday lives. She lives with her family in Alberta, Canada.

Nicole Boles' profile page

Excerpt: How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist: 330 Ways to Make a Difference in Your Home, Community, and World–at No Cost! (by (author) Nicole Boles)

Use Your Trash
"One man's trash is another man's treasure." -- Anonymous

In the spring of 1947, Homer and Langley Collyer -- brothers, recluses, and pack rats-- were found dead in their New York City brownstone. Also found were fourteen out-of-tune pianos, three dressmaker's dummies, three thousand books, pieces of a Model T Ford, camera equipment, bowling balls, musical instruments, furniture, the rusted frame of a baby carriage, and rooms stacked to the ceiling with the results of nearly forty years of obsessive and compulsive hoarding. One hundred and three tons of it, to be exact. Rescue workers discovered Homer's body almost immediately, but it took another eighteen days to uncover Langley. His body was found decomposing under an old suitcase and three bundles of newspapers.

Clearly, the Collyer brothers thought all this junk was something worth hanging on to. And in a way, I can see where they were coming from. It's one thing to toss out a banana peel, but a car engine? Surely something so solid should be worth something! Using our trash as a philanthropic tool requires adopting a bit of a Collyer mentality -- not the hoarding urge but the part of them that saw value in garbage. You already know that your belongings can pack a philanthropic punch; now see how your trash can do the same.

Down to the Last Scrap
We fill our garbage cans with things that shouldn't be there -- recyclables, bulky and hazardous waste, as well as plain old household trash that could be reduced if we'd just make a few changes to our daily routines. In the U.S., we generate 230 million tons of garbage a year -- that's about 4.6 pounds of discarded stuff per person per day. Despite raised environmental awareness over the last twenty years, we still have a long way to go. Consider this: Less than a quarter of garbage in the U.S. is recycled. The rest of it goes into the country's approximately 7,000