The Spirit of Giving All Year Long

The spirit of giving, whether it’s charitable or otherwise, is usually front of mind for a lot of people every year as December rolls around. As obvious as it seems, even though it’s no longer the holiday season, the spirit of giving can extend year-round! Earnestly, I’ve only come to understand that myself in the past few years.

So, to help with identifying a few of the many ways we can give year-round, I’ve created a non-exhaustive list:

Volunteering

Volunteering our time or talents to a cause or organization that we care about or needs help is a fantastic way to give. I’m often reminded that time is one of our most precious resources. So, if you have the capacity to volunteer your time or skills in some way for the benefit of others at any time throughout the year, that’s wonderful. Volunteering doesn’t have to be onerous or time-intensive if you don’t want it to be, but most of the time, it can be immensely meaningful and rewarding.

One of the fun ways my fiancée and I volunteer our time is by providing foster care to cats through organizations like the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association (VOKRA). It can be challenging, but it’s also very fulfilling to house, take care of, and be friends with our foster cats until they’re adopted into their forever homes and families.

Non-Financial Donations

Like volunteering, you can give in many other ways that don’t involve money. For example, donating blood, plasma, stem cells, etc. These kinds of donations can make a tremendous impact on people’s lives. Other non-financial donations could include giving non-perishable food items to a local food bank and giving gently used clothing, appliances, and a load of other items to local non-profit organizations that will use or recycle the donations in some way.

Financial Donations

For those who can also support causes or organizations financially, this is a terrific option that can also happen at any time during the year. Here are some examples of the different ways you can make financial donations:

• Gifting money
• Gifting securities / other capital assets in-kind
• Beneficiary designations / Gifting from your Estate
• Donor-Advised Funds

Gifting money is the most straight-forward, easiest, and usually one of the most effective ways to help causes or organizations. If you gift money to a non-profit organization that’s also a registered Canadian charity, you’ll receive a charitable donation tax receipt. You are able to use the tax receipt for your current year or typically any of the next five years’ taxes too.

Some registered charities might not have the infrastructure to accommodate in-kind gifts of securities/other capital assets, but if they do, it can be an impactful way to give. The tax treatment of in-kind gifts is very generous for the donor, and so it can be an incredibly useful tool for tax planning on top of the significant financial support to the charity.

You can also designate registered charities as the sole or a partial beneficiary of your registered accounts (such as your RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, etc.) and life insurance policies. Similarly, you can also note in your Will that you want a portion of your estate to be donated to a charity (in cash or in-kind).

When it comes to Donor-Advised Funds, my colleague Brent has a great post about it, and so give it a read.

If you’re interested in doing in-kind gifts or designating a charity as a beneficiary of your accounts/life insurance policies or starting a Donor-Advised Fund, I recommend working with your RGF Financial Advisor to see if it makes sense for you, your overall financial situation, and your goals.

Whichever way that you choose to give, my hope is that we can all continue to do it as often as we can!