#3 Tithing

For May, I first had to make up for missing the April tithing goal - donate to Rebuilding Together. Serendipitously, it goes nicely with my May tithing goals! (which... I planned after I failed April...which makes it not so much a surprise....but...shhhh... let it happen) These new goals are outlined in the following pleasantly passionate paragraph:

I have been so darn frustrated by politics and current issues lately, which I suppose is to be expected. I'm pretty sure everyone gets frustrated with politics during election years. But I want to do something constructive about my frustrations and anxiety. I'm sick of feeling helpless every time I listen to, or read about, politics in the news. To re-empower myself and "put my money where my mouth is," I went on a donation spree, giving to causes I feel most passionately about:




Publicly funded news (non-big corporation): My local NPR station





Sexual health and education - Planned Parenthood





Human rights and equality - (global) Human Rights Watch





Affordable housing/home repairs - Rebuilding Together



There are plenty more charities and non-profits I would love to donate to, even within just these four categories. I'm constantly learning about more opportunities to donate from sources like my favorite actors, Humans of New York (HONY), and various charity events happening in my area. Certainly, there is never a shortage of places to send my money off to, or ways to financially do good in my local, national, and global community.

A good website to get ideas of charities to donate to is: Charity Navigator
They rate the effectiveness of the charities - how much of your donation goes to the actual project versus the CEO's wallet, as well as the effect they've had on their cause- so you have a better idea of who/where to invest in, in order to have the effect on the community you want.


KJets

#3 Tithing: World Wildlife Fund

Quests in Humanities

World Wildlife Fund

This February I have totally spaced on volunteering. To make up for that, I'm making a larger financial donation. Like.... "adopt" a sloth!

The World Wildlife Fund has a donation program where you can help sponsor for various species of animals (124 listed).

Small example of the variety of animals you can "adopt."

My life feels like I'm going at a turtle-pace, so I contemplated sponsoring a tortoise, but ultimately went with a sloth. My "F* It, I'm Going to Run Away" dream is to work on a sloth-rehabilitation farm in Costa Rica, like the Sloth Sanctuary of Cost Rica.

Yay! The donation comes with information about the species, as well as some other goodies.

I have mixed feelings about getting gifts as a reward for donating.

The money used to supply the gifts could and should be used toward extra charity work, and put toward needed things.
However, the gifts they are giving away are (most likely) not as expensive as people may be assuming. Non-profits often get what are called In-Kind donations - gifts of goods or services - from companies. Perhaps in this case from a stuffed animal manufacturing company.
I know this doesn't excuse it. Every penny counts in a non-profit. Admittedly, I'm being selfish.

However....

I'm so super excited about getting this fun swag!!! Ever since I saw Kamala Khan (the new Ms. Marvel, comic book character) has a stuffed animal sloth, I've wanted one as well.

KJets

#3 Tithing (money): Corral Riding Academy

Quests in Humanities

Corral Riding Academy 

So,  I'm trying not to beat myself up about this.
On the negative side: I didn't actually donate during the month of February.
On the positive side: I learned about AmazonSmile,  and have now set it up so that this organization will be getting small donations* every time I buy something on Amazon.com (I plan to  buy a composter this month so voila! I will have accomplished the goal of donating to them,  even though I'll be a bit later than January.  Lol)

Some cool things about Corral:

- They are a non-profit equestrian center (place for riding horses)  that focuses on equine assisted therapy for at risk girls and young women.  They also do some academic and job skills help,  but check out their website for more information

- They were going to lose the farm -  due to the owner of the land wanting to develop it and make a bunch of money,  is what the reason seemed to be -  so Corral needed to buy the land from the owner.  In just three months,  they raised the required million dollars! This organization is well supported by this community :)

I'd like to try volunteering with them at some point.  They have an open house every month,  so maybe I'll try this month. Or March.... When the weather starts getting a little nicer....  But it would be wonderful to be around horses again. Aaaah that barn smell! I'd feel a little out of my relm of abilities if I was asked to help with the girls in some way...  But give me a wheelbarrow and a scooper and I'm ready to clean some stalls!

KJets

*AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of every order placed on Amazon to the charity that you have selected. Do it! An easy way to support a cause that is close to your heart!