How to Support a Charity During the Holidays

Do you want to support a charity without facing financial challenges this holiday season?

It’s the holiday season and we all know what that means: Peaking charity donations! Charities have been highly active this year due to COVID and need our support more than ever to continue their services to help our community. Fortunately, there are many inexpensive ways to show your support without financially challenging yourself. If you missed this week’s Live at 5 on our Instagram and want to learn how you can support a charity without feeling financial regret this holiday season, keep reading our article for our short insights and tips!

What are some trends that charities have been facing during the pandemic?

• Restricting regulations:

With the safety regulations and decreased funding during COVID, charities took a large hit and had to quickly learn from and adapt to the changing environment. Like many businesses, they had to lay off staff and reduce their services to be able to continue operating their charitable services. In addition to their funded services, some of their interactive programs such as volunteering cancelled due to safety regulations which affected the services they provide to help the community.

• High demand and turbulent supply:

One of the charities’ greatest challenge is to find new ways to provide their support to communities with limited resources and restricting safety regulations. Due to communities needing more help, charities have been facing increased demand for their services. Fortunately, most charities that support front-line workers and primary needs such as food, safety and shelter get increased funding which helps them conquer the challenges of their communities.

However, this is not the reality for all charities. The pandemic made it financially harder to support a charity and the decreased funding prevents some organizations to provide the needed level of support to their communities.

What opportunities are available to support a charity despite financial challenges?

1) Flexible programs:

If you are having financial challenges, there are fortunately many ways to get involved! If you want to provide financial support, you can opt-in for a small monthly donation instead of one bigger lump sum. This can allow you to support the causes you believe in without burning a hole in your pocket. Even a monthly $5 donation can make a big difference for charities.

2) Tax credits:

In addition to flexible donation options, there are also financial incentives regardless of the amount and frequency of your donations. The federal government provides a 15% tax credit for charity donors and some provinces add additional tax credits. For example, Ontario residents get an additional 5.05% tax credit which makes the total tax credit amount 20.5% of the donation. This means that if you donate $100 to a charity, you will get $20.5 back from your taxes.

3) Community support:

You can also find various ways to support charities without providing any monetary support! There are many volunteer programs that you might get involved in. If you aren’t sure of your options, we recommend you to contact the charity to ask them the ways to get involved. You can then easily pick the best fit for you without making any assumptions.

4) Word of mouth:

Do you know others who might have the financial opportunity or resources to support a charity? Spreading the word about active charities, their services, and the ways to support them can create a chain of support and amplify possible donations.

We hope you enjoyed reading our blog post! Check the full live chat here. You can find our live chats and more of the latest financial news on our News Blog. Stay tuned to learn more tips on a new topic each week on our Instagram Live at 5 on Instagram! Aside from our live chats, we post daily financial updates on social media!