Giving your time and money are both amazing ways to contribute to the organizations and causes that you care about. Without volunteers and donors, community benefit organizations simply couldn’t exist. However, you don’t have to do anything extraordinary to make a difference. There are many ways to help support your favorite cause, by doing things you already do.
Here’s how you can turn your daily activities into difference-making dollars.
Working Out: Charity Miles
Charity Miles is a smart phone app that allows users to earn 10 cents per mile for bikers and 25 cents per mile for runners and walkers to donate. They believe that every mile matters and encourage users to take their philanthropy and fitness into their own hands. Currently the participating organizations include Achilles International, ASPCA, Autism Speaks, DoSomething.org, Every Mother Counts, Feeding America, Girl Up, Habitat for Humanity, Ironman Foundation, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Nothing But Nets, Partnership For a Healthier America, Pencils of Promise, She’s the First , Shot@Life, Stand Up to Cancer, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, The Nature Conservancy, VisionSpring, The World Food Programme, and the Wounded Warrior Project.
I personally run for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. My Grandmother battled Parkinson’s disease so it is a perfect motivation to get me out there and running .
Searching the Internet: GoodSearch
Make GoodSearch your homepage and search engine to contribute to your cause in a very simple way. One cent for every search gets donated to the charity of your choice and a percentage of your online purchase with select retailers can be donated as well. More than 15 million people used Goodsearch last year to support more than 100,000 non-profits and schools. Since 2006, Goodsearch users have raised more than $9 million, participated in over 1.1 billion charitable actions, and have truly made a difference.
My searches donate money to the Fresno State Humanics Program, which trains students to serve humanity through community benefit organization work and activism.
Taking a break from your phone: Unicef Tap Project
For every minute you can go without touching your phone, you can earn one day of clean water for a child who needs it. All you have to do is go to uniceftapproject.org on your phone’s search engine and set your phone down for a while. This also doubles as a tool to help you stay focused and unplug for a bit.
I made it 1 hour and 26 minutes and donated 86 days of clean water before I answered a phone call.
Training your brain: Free Rice
The mission of Free Rice is to provide free education and food around the world. The way it works is you can choose to play a trivia game in a subject area you want to learn more about such as math, chemistry, language learning, geography, humanities, anatomy, and even SAT prep. For every question you get right, you are able to donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme.
So, do you already use one of these sites? How do you incorporate service into your daily life?
-Ambassador Emily
The Richter Center Student Leaders 