How to donate to charity without money

This is a no-brainer. Squidoo is an excellent way to promote your charity to a large audience. It's also a great way to generate money for it.

You could do this by donating the money you make here yourself. An easier way is to use the royalty settings in your profile to do that for you. If your favorite charity is not on the list, drop them a line and have them sign up to be a Squidoo charity! Then even more people can choose that charity to donate some of their profits.

But that might take some convincing. Building a lens is the easiest way to do that. It's fun, fast and you create a space on the web to tell people why your charity is such a worthy cause. Tell them why you're passionate about it, why the work they do is so effective and needed and why you think everyone should help them out. After that it's all about promoting. Join a group, put the word out on the forums or to other people. For a great source of information check out this lens on ways to help a charity.

More information on how you can help your charity with Squidoo can be found on the Charity Central part of the site.

Squidoo is not the only site on the web which donates (part) of their revenue to charities. There are others and they all have one thing in common: by using the site users generate an income stream for the site owners who then donate the proceedings to charity. Here are a few examples.

At Freerice.com the object is simple: you play a game by answering questions. Answer a question correctly and the site will donate 10 grains of rice to the world food program. Answer wrong and the amount you totaled will stay the same. There is a catch: questions get harder after each correct answer so you have to work harder after each question. There are several topics so you might learn a thing or two. And although 10 grains of rice doesn't seem much per correct answer, answer a couple of questions correctly and things start adding up real fast.

Neoaid.com is one of the latest sites to donate part of their proceedings to charity. It's a portal of sorts where they generate money by users using their search engine, buy stuff through them or receive free offers. Nice little feature is the counter on their homepage which states how much money they've already raised.

Ecocho is a search engine that promises that for every 1000 searches they sponsor the growth of 2 trees to offset carbon emissions. The add money generated is used to buy carbon offset credits, which in turn is used to sponsor tree growth initiatives.

This is not about getting those million dollar endorsement contracts like some professional athletes. It's about getting your family, friends, acquaintances, local businesses or anyone else to sponsor you if you achieve a certain feat. This doesn't have to be something gigantic like ride a bike for 12.000 miles. It could be doing something simpler and more close to your heart.

An example. Let's say you do a 3 mile morning run each day. Finishing a marathon then would be a big achievement. You could set out to find sponsorship not only to face that challenge, but to receive the payout when you finish the race. Not only do you get the added bonus of getting fitter, you generate money for your favorite charity. (on a side note: running a marathon has become one of the most popular ways for people to generate money for charity. Broadcasts of the London Marathon for instance are getting more focused on the people who run for charity then the actual athletes who win.)

The above was just an example, but you can imagine doing other things. Just from the top of the head:
- Sitting on a pole for 24 hours
- Lose weight
- Climb a mountain
- Swim across a big lake

It doesn't have to be big, but it does have to be a challenge for you personally. It's all about putting in the effort and dedication.

Organizing a concert where the best bands in the world perform, or putting together a diner where people pay $ 1000 a plate might be a bit out of your league. But organizing a fundraiser doesn't have to be a large affair. It could be something smaller, just involving your local community, neighbourhood or town. It's about organizing a small event where the proceeds go to charity (be sure to check your charities website on how they can help you, but also on possible restrictions they have on ways of using their name). Again, this could be something close to your heart.

Maybe you like baking pies. And you and some friends come together on a regular basis to exchange pie recipes, talk about pies and more importantly: taste them. Organizing a pie sale and donating the profits is an easy step. Get those cooking friends involved in baking the pies (and make sure they produce their best ones) and get the word out. Tell your friends and family, hang flyers, try and get into a program on your local radio station or be featured in an article in a local newspaper. You get to do something you already love doing and help out your charity of choice: it's a win-win situation.

Some other examples:
- The choir you sing in performs in a one-time-only concert
- An organized bike ride
- Garage sale

It's all about motivating people and getting them together.

Volunteering is one of the easiest ways to donate to charity without money. All you have to donate is your time. It's about showing up and doing the effort.

There are numerous ways for you to volunteer with all kinds of charities, Being a big brother, helping to clean away garbage in local parks or distribute food in the kitchen of a homeless shelter. The possibilities are endless. You could contact your favorite charity and ask for possibilities or look at one of the volunteer networks on the web.

Below you will find links to volunteer networks to help you chose which charity you want to donate your time to.

To be honest this is not actually donating to charity without money. Going on vacation does cost money, but if you do plan on going on holiday you might as well combine the two. Truth be told, these holidays are usually more expensive than an average holiday. But if you go that way there are several organizations that organize these trips.

A few examples:
- Habitat for Humanity organizes trips to build housing.
- Earthwatch organizes trips with ecological purposes.
- With Adelante you can study a language abroad and volunteer.

Here's another directory with more organizations that provide a combination of holiday and charity work.

This is taking it a step further. In stead of giving them money, they pay you for the work you put in. Now there's a reversal if you ever saw one. But getting a job at a charity is not so easy.

Jobs in the non-profit sector are highly sought-after and there's stiff competition. Getting the right skills for the job (like with any job) is highly recommended. If anything there are always positions for people who are able to raise funds (sidenote: if you want a good read on fund raising, read Sasha Dichter's Manifesto (PDF file)). Having a history in volunteering or helping out with a non-profit is also a plus and looks great on your resume.

You also have to realize that most non-profits can't pay salaries that are up to standard to the private sector. Running a charity is all about minimizing costs. If you decide to go and work for a charity and get offered a job, there's a good chance that it will mean a pay cut.

But working day in and day out on something you're passionate about brings its own rewards. You work in an environment with people as passionate about the work as you are and your results have a direct effect on helping the cause.