So, What Exactly Do You Think You're Doing?

Since I made this, my personal challenge, public I have received very positive and encouraging feedback from my friends and family. And questions. The most often asked question is, what kind of charitable acts are you going to do?

My short answer is, "Somewhere above holding the door for the guy behind me and somewhere below sponsoring a wing at the hospital!". But it did make me think that I should establish some basic criteria for myself. And to let others know exactly what I am trying to accomplish.  

1. The charitable act must not benefit me monetarily or in merchandise. Now this may seem obvious, but since I entered this mindset I see charitable requests everywhere I go. And many of them offer something in return for your giving. At a donation center they offer tax receipts. I saw a canned food donation box that offered a coupon to the store sponsoring the event in return for your pasta sauce drop-off. Or maybe there is a free gift offer or a percentage goes to charity but you are left with an item in your possession. This is a perfectly acceptable and proven way to stimulate donations and fundraising. However, for my personal challenge, I do not want to acquire. On the other hand I don't want to limit my options. So, if I do choose a charitable act that makes such an offer, I will gladly accept it and then pass that bonus off to another charity or person in need.
2. The charitable act must be more than the minimum I have done. As I wrote in my first post, I know what my comfort level of giving has been - I do volunteer for events, I do make donations of food and toys at the holidays at convenient drop off points, leave a few dollars in the buckets outside the grocery store over the year, attend fundraisers or enter charity raffles for the price of the ticket. For this project I will challenge myself to do more than my comfort level, giving of time and talent and effort above what might be convenient.
3. The charitable act must be counted from the start to end time as one act. I was asked this specific question and put a lot of thought into the answer. I may donate or volunteer to the same cause more than once during the year. I also have a goal to join a planning committee for an event during the year. So, for example, each Red Cross blood drive I attend would count as one act towards the 45 for the year. A committee that meets multiple times and culminates in an event would be considered as one act towards the 45 for the year.

That's it. Three criteria. No reason to make it complicated or hard to do, that's opposite of the point!

I have already begun choosing some events and I am sponsoring one myself for Operation Write Home, which provides hand made cards for the troops to send to their families. Please see my new Charitable Events Calendar page. This page will be updated as events are planned! And a Pinterest page is coming soon!