‘Tis the season for giving. Now where do I start?

‘Tis the sea­son for giv­ing, but it can often be hard to know how to help or where to start. Here are a few ideas on how to spread the love beyond your own family.

Donate to a local nonprofit

If your mail­box looks any­thing like mine this week you know that there are many com­mu­nity based, not for profit orga­ni­za­tions around who need our finan­cial sup­port to con­tinue their impor­tant work. I am sup­port­ing the Loudoun Literacy Council this year and invite you to join me. The Loudoun Literacy Council’s ded­i­cated team of vol­un­teers and staff are com­mit­ted to improv­ing English lit­er­acy skills of at-risk adults, chil­dren and fam­i­lies in Loudoun County through ESL course offer­ings, story times in local home­less shel­ters, book dona­tions, com­mu­nity events, indi­vid­ual tutor­ing, and work­ing with the county Head Start pro­gram. Each of these offer­ings affects indi­vid­u­als, and their sto­ries drive me to help the Loudoun Literacy Council in any way I can. Plus, gifts in December 2009 will be dou­bled up to $10,000 by an anony­mous donor and I like the idea of dou­bling my gift.

Consider giv­ing “alter­na­tive gifts” to the ide­al­ists on your list this year

You and your loved ones can cre­ate alter­na­tive gift reg­istries with help from the folks at a New American Dream. Imagine the impact you can have on a young child by help­ing them develop an other-centered alter­na­tive hol­i­day gift list.

You can shop at one of the local Alternative Gift Fairs which allow you to donate to local non­profit orga­ni­za­tions on behalf of some­one on your shop­ping list. Much bet­ter than a lump of coal.

If you are glob­ally inclined, there is always Heifer International which promises to help you “choose a mean­ing­ful gift to give a loved one and help chil­dren and fam­i­lies around the world receive train­ing and ani­mal gifts that help them become self-reliant.”

Short on cash? There are still many ways you can help our community!

Donate Blood

The Red Cross is ALWAYS look­ing for blood donors. This is not a kid-friendly task (you should have seen the looks they gave me when I tried to sneak the kids onto the blood-mobile a few years back!), but could be a nice escape on the week­end if you are not both­ered by nee­dles and blood. If you are not eli­gi­ble, maybe you can babysit for a friend while s/he donates.

Help the Ashburn Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department

By par­tic­i­pat­ing in a short fire safety sur­vey between now and December 21, 2009, you can help the Ashburn Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department win a $10,000 grant. I just did this and promise to revisit this post if I start get­ting oodles of junk mail. Of course, by then it may be too late.…

Provide a fos­ter home for a home­less animal

There are many ani­mal res­cue orga­ni­za­tions here in Northern Virginia that need help from ded­i­cated, expe­ri­enced ani­mal lovers who are will­ing to train, social­ize and love pets seek­ing new for­ever homes. Here are some of your options:

• HART (Homeless Animal Rescue Team)
• 4Paws (cats only)
• Friends of Homeless Animals
• Paws Rescue (dogs only)

I have not per­son­ally fos­tered for any of these orga­ni­za­tions. I rec­om­mend con­tact­ing an agency to see if it feels like a fit, and seri­ously con­sid­er­ing whether fos­ter­ing is right for your fam­ily before you start. It is a big commitment!

Volunteer to post fliers for a local nonprofit

This is a fun project to involve the kids in as you can traipse through your local com­mu­nity cen­ter, post office, gym, and library together and talk about the folks you are help­ing as you go. But, watch out! You may get so attached to their mis­sion you end up vol­un­teer­ing in other capacities…

Conduct your own com­mu­nity clean up

Look for it and you will find trash, dog feces, cig­a­rette butts and other messes in our shared spaces. Teach your kids a les­son and work together to help clean a lit­tle piece of it up. Don’t for­get to wear gloves and wash your hands! If you need a lit­tle lit­er­a­ture to con­nect the dots for younger kids, check out the book All the Way to the Ocean by Joel Harper.

Leverage your gro­cery bill

If your fre­quent shop­per club card at your store of choice is not already con­nected to a scrip pro­gram sup­port­ing your local schools or favorite non­profit con­sider sup­port­ing the Georgetown Child Life pro­gram through the Giant Bonus Bucks pro­gram. The thought of spend­ing the hol­i­days away from home in a hos­pi­tal is dif­fi­cult for many of us to imag­ine, but for some it is a con­stant real­ity. Having a few toys around sounds like a good thing.

And if all else fails, just count birds

Seriously! You can join the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy at their 13^th annual Christmas Bird Count on December 27, 2009.

Tagged as: giving in Loudoun, how to help others at the holidays, volunteer Christmas 2009