This is the final post in Cadence’s four-part series on starting your own non-profit or charity.
- Part 1: Six Questions to Ask Before Starting a Non-profit or Charity
- Part 2: Non-profit or charity? What’s the difference
- Part 3: Top Mistakes New Charities Make
We started this series with a few simple questions all asking one thing: should you start your own non-profit or charity? For some people, the answer will be a rousing YES!
But what if your answer was no?
Not every charitable idea merits its own new organization, and not every good person is prepared to start a charity. But don’t let that stop you from acting on your conviction to make a positive impact in the world.
Here are some of our favourite other ways to do good in the nonprofit world and beyond:
Become an advocate for an existing non-profit or charity
Find a charity or non-profit and commit to being its advocate for a year.
First, get in touch directly and ask about their needs. From awareness to volunteers to dollars, each organization’s wish list will be unique. Next, look at the list below and make a plan to help them meet that need by the end of the year.
Advocacy could include:
- Sharing the charity’s impact stories on your social media
- Hosting a fundraiser for them (see below)
- Inviting a few friends over for dinner to share why you believe in what the charity is doing, then asking them to help you meet your goal for the year (tell them the purpose of your invite first though; no one likes a bait and switch)
- Commiting to bringing five guests to the charity’s annual fundraising event
- Asking people to give donations instead of gifts on your birthday
- Recruiting one or two volunteers who’s specific skills match the organizations needs
- Commiting to learning about the systemic issues that underpin the organization’s work, and finding two or three ways to push back against them in your own life
All of these are relatively small actions, but over the course of a year, you can make a big difference in the life of a single charity by focusing your advocacy on their particular needs.
Host a fundraiser
Just last week, I stopped by a garage sale. I bought two used camping chairs in great condition for my kids as well as a Star Wars encyclopedia (natch). I found some incredible treasures and, to top it all off, the money went straight to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.
It turns out that the 12 year old boy working at the yard sale wasn’t supposed to live past the age of five days. His life was saved by the hospital, and having a garage sale to support BC Children’s was his family’s way of giving back.
Hosting a fundraiser doesn’t have to be elaborate. You could collect bottles for a year, host a yard sale, or even just put up a donation box for your birthday on Facebook. The dollar amount in the end doesn’t have to be huge. Hosting a fundraising event is a great way to take a small part of the burden of finding funding off a charity’s shoulders so they can do more great work.
Volunteer your unique skills
Many organizations live on volunteerism. Commit to listening to what the organization really needs, and assessing if you have the right skills to contribute. Aside from empowering a charity, volunteering has a number of benefits: networking, making new friends, meeting diverse people – sometimes it can even lead to a new job.
A word of warning, though: if you want to volunteer, make sure you’re a good fit. It’s actually a burden on organizations to have volunteers who need a lot of hand-holding or who don’t bring a professional level of quality to professional tasks. A good rule of thumb is that if you commit to volunteering, do it as if you’re getting paid.
Share a charity’s story
When a charity you love sends you an impact story, share it. Post it on social media and tell people why you liked it. Forward it to someone with a personal note about why it might interest them.
While charity’s appreciate it when someone shares that they made a donation, your impact will be much greater if you make a point to share why a story touched you. Your words can help engage others more deeply in what the charity is trying to achieve, inviting others to join in the charity’s mission as well.
Explore limited-term community impact projects
Starting a charity is a long-term commitment. But there are a number of ways to “start something” with a more limited timeline that can still make a difference. For example, many cities periodically put out calls for community building grant proposals: small, $1,000 – $2,000 grants for neighborhood-based projects. These projects aren’t meant to be long-term; they’re meant to bring neighbors together and strengthen people’s ties to one another.
You could plan a community art project for the neighborhood school, host a potluck in your local park where everyone brings a dish from their country of origin, or organize a local highway cleanup day and buy everyone popsicles afterward.
Small projects can give you a taste for how to bring people together for the sake of a good cause before committing to a years-long endeavour.
Consume with a purpose
Pick a few items you would buy anyway and commit to getting them from a charity, non-profit, or social enterprise. In Vancouver, this could mean getting my chocolate and coffee from East Van Roasters, replacing broken housewares from a charity-run thrift store, or hiring a social enterprise to reno my bathroom. You could buy all your Christmas gifts from an organization catalog that directly supports purpose-driven enterprises, or give everyone on your list a microfinance loan centered around their interests.
By replacing the things you buy anyway with socially-driven purchases, you can turn your everyday needs into a way to do good in the world.
Donate
You saw this one coming, right? But seriously: one of the simplest, most effective ways to support a charity or non-profit is to give them some of your money.
Remember, most charities can leverage your money in ways that expand the impact of every dollar. Think of food banks: most can get three times the amount of food than you could buy yourself and donate. Both in terms of simplicity and impact, it makes sense to put your dollars into the hands of your favourite charity or non-profit.
Try setting aside a small percentage of your income – between 1 & 10% – to give away each month, or commit to donating a larger portion of any “extra” money you get throughout the year, say 25% of your tax return or birthday money. It may be a cliche, but in the world of non-profits, every dollar really does count.
Got other ideas of ways to do good? Let us know!
