Charity: To Give or Not to Give
It seems, at every turn, that someone is asking for money. From change jars on counters to phone calls at dinner, everybody wants their piece. With the start of the school year just around the corner, I am not looking forward to the cookie dough, wrapping paper, magazine, and coupon book catalogs that will soon litter the break room counters. Anyone with a child knows how traumatic this can be. You promise you will not do it for them, and then you realize how bad they want to earn that ducky coin purse, and off you go, hocking their wears so the PTSA or boosters can get their piece of the pie. The problem is they really need that money!
All of the organizations do. From programs for at-risk youth to Cancer research. So what do you do? Do you give until it hurts, or do you just ignore it? You want to give, but you can't give to every organization.
Here are some points to ponder. First, quite literally every penny helps. It was this premis that started the March of Dimes. If everyone gave a dime they would cure a disease. The fact is pennies turn to nickels, nickels turn to dimes, dimes to quarters and quarters to dollars. The Ronald McDonald House gets a large portion of their funding from the change that people drop in those boxes in the drive through and next to every register. So when you are feeling sheepish about not being able to donate hundreds of dollars, donate a dollar, $5. It helps!
Second, it is not a competition. Don't get me wrong, fundraising is a huge competition, for your dollar, against other teams and against time, but for you personally, it should not be a competition. Who can donate more. Whether you can give $1 or a $1000, you are all a part of the solution. If people let their inability to donate high dollar amounts interfere with donating there small portion, then it is the charity or cause that suffers. Be proud of your $1.00!
Third: Pick a cause or organization that you can get behind, that is in align with your core values and world view. If you are a Dawg, it doesn't make much sense to back the Cougs. However, perhaps your children are young and in school. This could keep your focus on things like PTSA or Boosters or Childhood Illness causes. Want to thank our service men and women? Find an organization that supports them and focus your efforts and money there.
Most importantly, set a budget. This can be a challenge. Just like any activity, helping can get out of control too. As a company, the Bruce Titus Automotive Group is committed to the communities where we work and live, but we too have to set a giving budget. We would LOVE to help every person who came to our door but it is just not feasible.
I want to share this incredible new program that was just launched and we have just signed up for the Beta version. Some things are just too good not to share. Now, admittedly the following information is definitely from a business perspective, however, there is a private/individual element that I would strongly recommend you check out.
In short - we all give, but it’s often tough to determine what,who and where Generally, we are inundated with giving requests, I know I am. To address that, GIViNG getsRESULTS has created GIViNGtrax, which allows a business to transact, publish and promote their community giving.
The tools allows businesses to create GIViNG Criteria that filters their incoming donation request to allow zero to unlimited requests to come thru based on their customer & employees values, location, and nonprofit categories. Each member also gets a dedicated GIViNG Microsite with a unique URL, GIViNG widgets for their existing website & Facebook pages, and the ability to instantly integrate with Facebook and Twitter, plus tons of reports! Additionally, they are building out piece of technology that enables businesses to offer employee and customers matched giving promotions - why not create more loyal customers and employees!
GIViNGgets RESULTS is launching a multi-user marketplace called GIViNGtrax™ that empowers local communities in ways never before possible and provides the handshake between the members of a community who make a good cause a great success! They provide web-based & mobile-based tools for managing donations, fundraising, and GIViNG. In a way, they play "matchmaker" to local businesses, nonprofits, schools, foundations, youth sports teams, and individuals who otherwise may have never met.
GIViNG gets RESULTS’ GIViNGtrax™ platform is FREE for nonprofits, schools, foundations, youth sports teams, and individuals to use (business members pay a nominal subscription fee)! The GIViNGtrax™ Donation Matching Engine allows members to submit a GIViNG requests to the “cloud” and that request is then matched to local businesses that are likely to say “YES” based on their GIViNG Criteria. All GIViNGtrax™ users have a dedicated GIViNG Microsite that focuses on their community giving and its impact to the community and access to GIViNG Widgets for their existing websites & Facebook pages. As an added bonus for nonprofits and schools, they can take donations directly through their GIViNG Microsite without the need of a merchant account! GIViNGtrax’ purpose is to streamline the process of soliciting business donations and employer-match GIViNG, plus they make it easy to recognize how local businesses support their communities through social media integration with Facebook and Twitter
So it is not feasible for you to think that you can give to everyone, but in these challenging economic times, it is important that we all commit ourselves to our communities and help each other up. One of the best parts of any community is counting on your neighbors. We are less likely to drop by a neighbors house with chicken soup like the good 'ol days, but you can drop off a can of food in the food bank bin, and you can drop your spare change in one of those buckets at the store. It all helps.
Below are a handful of the causes or organizations that we, as a company, and our employees are committed to. Looking for a place to start your giving process.....look here.
Have a safe and pleasant holiday weekend, from all of here at the Bruce Titus Automotive Group family of dealerships.
Light the Night Walk - Team The Hope Instillers
Cascade Regional Blood Services
Pierce County Humane Society
Kitsap County Humane Society
King County Humane Society
This by no means an extensive list of charities or causes. This is just a sample, a place to get you started.
Remember helping others makes you feel just as good as those who you are helping.
BLD
All of the organizations do. From programs for at-risk youth to Cancer research. So what do you do? Do you give until it hurts, or do you just ignore it? You want to give, but you can't give to every organization.
Here are some points to ponder. First, quite literally every penny helps. It was this premis that started the March of Dimes. If everyone gave a dime they would cure a disease. The fact is pennies turn to nickels, nickels turn to dimes, dimes to quarters and quarters to dollars. The Ronald McDonald House gets a large portion of their funding from the change that people drop in those boxes in the drive through and next to every register. So when you are feeling sheepish about not being able to donate hundreds of dollars, donate a dollar, $5. It helps!
Second, it is not a competition. Don't get me wrong, fundraising is a huge competition, for your dollar, against other teams and against time, but for you personally, it should not be a competition. Who can donate more. Whether you can give $1 or a $1000, you are all a part of the solution. If people let their inability to donate high dollar amounts interfere with donating there small portion, then it is the charity or cause that suffers. Be proud of your $1.00!
Third: Pick a cause or organization that you can get behind, that is in align with your core values and world view. If you are a Dawg, it doesn't make much sense to back the Cougs. However, perhaps your children are young and in school. This could keep your focus on things like PTSA or Boosters or Childhood Illness causes. Want to thank our service men and women? Find an organization that supports them and focus your efforts and money there.
Most importantly, set a budget. This can be a challenge. Just like any activity, helping can get out of control too. As a company, the Bruce Titus Automotive Group is committed to the communities where we work and live, but we too have to set a giving budget. We would LOVE to help every person who came to our door but it is just not feasible.
I want to share this incredible new program that was just launched and we have just signed up for the Beta version. Some things are just too good not to share. Now, admittedly the following information is definitely from a business perspective, however, there is a private/individual element that I would strongly recommend you check out.
In short - we all give, but it’s often tough to determine what,who and where Generally, we are inundated with giving requests, I know I am. To address that, GIViNG getsRESULTS has created GIViNGtrax, which allows a business to transact, publish and promote their community giving.
The tools allows businesses to create GIViNG Criteria that filters their incoming donation request to allow zero to unlimited requests to come thru based on their customer & employees values, location, and nonprofit categories. Each member also gets a dedicated GIViNG Microsite with a unique URL, GIViNG widgets for their existing website & Facebook pages, and the ability to instantly integrate with Facebook and Twitter, plus tons of reports! Additionally, they are building out piece of technology that enables businesses to offer employee and customers matched giving promotions - why not create more loyal customers and employees!
GIViNGgets RESULTS is launching a multi-user marketplace called GIViNGtrax™ that empowers local communities in ways never before possible and provides the handshake between the members of a community who make a good cause a great success! They provide web-based & mobile-based tools for managing donations, fundraising, and GIViNG. In a way, they play "matchmaker" to local businesses, nonprofits, schools, foundations, youth sports teams, and individuals who otherwise may have never met.
GIViNG gets RESULTS’ GIViNGtrax™ platform is FREE for nonprofits, schools, foundations, youth sports teams, and individuals to use (business members pay a nominal subscription fee)! The GIViNGtrax™ Donation Matching Engine allows members to submit a GIViNG requests to the “cloud” and that request is then matched to local businesses that are likely to say “YES” based on their GIViNG Criteria. All GIViNGtrax™ users have a dedicated GIViNG Microsite that focuses on their community giving and its impact to the community and access to GIViNG Widgets for their existing websites & Facebook pages. As an added bonus for nonprofits and schools, they can take donations directly through their GIViNG Microsite without the need of a merchant account! GIViNGtrax’ purpose is to streamline the process of soliciting business donations and employer-match GIViNG, plus they make it easy to recognize how local businesses support their communities through social media integration with Facebook and Twitter
So it is not feasible for you to think that you can give to everyone, but in these challenging economic times, it is important that we all commit ourselves to our communities and help each other up. One of the best parts of any community is counting on your neighbors. We are less likely to drop by a neighbors house with chicken soup like the good 'ol days, but you can drop off a can of food in the food bank bin, and you can drop your spare change in one of those buckets at the store. It all helps.
Below are a handful of the causes or organizations that we, as a company, and our employees are committed to. Looking for a place to start your giving process.....look here.
Have a safe and pleasant holiday weekend, from all of here at the Bruce Titus Automotive Group family of dealerships.
Light the Night Walk - Team The Hope Instillers
Cascade Regional Blood Services
Pierce County Humane Society
Kitsap County Humane Society
King County Humane Society
This by no means an extensive list of charities or causes. This is just a sample, a place to get you started.
Remember helping others makes you feel just as good as those who you are helping.
BLD
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