I donate 10% of my income
For quite some time, I had wanted to be more charitable. I would occasionally give money to a begger, or round up my change at Taco Bell or some other establishment. Then about a year ago, I started thinking about the things I typically spend my money on. Video games, eating out, gas (mostly for leisure and fun activities).
I don't have a lot of money. I don't pay any bills, except my cell phone, web hosting, and a few domain names. I live with my mom & she pays the bills. I don't have much income, but what I do have is mostly spent on things that are not necessary for my survival. I have LINK (government-provided money for food) so I am able to eat pretty well.
And at some point, I decided I just needed to systematize it. So now when I get any income, I put 10% of it in an envelope to use for charitable purposes.
I gave $2 to a beggar yesterday, and I'll repay myself from my donations fund. I bought some supplies to fix up a stop sign on a local bike trail - I repaid myself from donation funds. One time a woman in front of me at the pharmacy was $10 short on her grandson's medication, so I covered that.
Having this fund set aside is actually so wonderful though. No longer do I have to stress and decide in the moment "Can I afford this?" If it's set aside in my donation fund, then YES, I can.
I haven't actually given to any charities. I'm extremely reluctant because charities often come with lots of overhead, and I want my donations to go to the best causes. And I haven't done any research. I certainly won't give to any big charities - like St. Jude's whose CEO makes millions of dollars a year. Might give to some local charities - but even they won't get a ton of benefit from my measley $10 per month. So I don't know, maybe i just hold onto it for mutual aid - for beggars, for friends or family going through some rough patch, and for things like the stop sign repair. Idk.
Mainly, I'm just writing this blog post to encourage you to do something similar. I don't know if 10% is reasonable with your budget. Maybe 5% or even 1%. Or maybe you're quite wealthy and can go much higher. Maybe you don't have money to give, but skills and time to provide - maybe you're handy and fix things for neighbors or just volunteer with a local org.
It's good to give, and people need support.