Should You Have an Emergency Charity Fund? |
15 Comments |
It’s no secret that one of my favorite blogs is Get Rich Slowly. Yesterday there was an article about how to coping with financial disaster. (My short answer see #14 of 16 Thoughts on Oprah’s Stanford Commencement Speech… Grieve properly, attend to the situation at hand, and get back to what was important before the crisis.)
With more and more natural disasters striking the United States, it occurred to me… should I have an emergency fund to donate to charity? I typically focus my charitable efforts on one effort… the American Cancer Society… in honor of my dad. Perhaps that doesn’t make sense anymore. Perhaps I should “plan” for one or two disasters each year… whether it be wild fires, flooding, hurricanes, or tornadoes.
I think in the future, I’ll look to divide my charitable contributions in three ways… I will still support the American Cancer Society, I don’t see that ever changing. However, I will divide the other half of my charitable contributions to charities are more directly observable by me. I’m thinking that one of those sites is Kiva.org. The other would be this emergency fund for natural disasters.
I suppose there’s no right or wrong answers when it comes to charity and giving, but as always I’m curious to hear what you think. Do you have an emergency charity fund?
This post deals with:american cancer society, charitable contributions, charitable efforts, charities, charity fund, emergency fund, financial disaster, hurricanes, natural disasters, stanford commencement speech, tornadoes, wild fires
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June 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 am
I guess it depends on what you believe. I think that saving money and earning interest (even if you are just keeping pace with inflation) is fine. The whole point of an emergency fund is to have it when you need it.
In this time of very expensive gas and food, I don’t think digging deeper and going without is an option for many people.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Saving money to give later defeats the whole point of giving money. You give a percent of your income, your income changes and your giving reflects that. If there is a large issue, you dig deaper and go without. Leaving money in the bank helps no one!!
June 21st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Thank you so much for bringing this idea to light. I give regular percentages of my net to charities. But I also keep a “Generosity Fund” which is above and beyond charity giving because I value generosity. Money accumulates in this account, and whenever I need it for extra charitable purposes, or I just see or hear of a need among friends or family or friends of friends, I dip into the Generosity Fund. Sometimes it accumlates lots of money- “Let your alms sweat in your hands until you know to whom to give it” (Didache)
June 20th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I keep a charitable giving account; it’s just an EmigrantDirect savings account. Part of my budget is to give 5% of my gross income to charity. I have that money automatically transferred each month to my ED Charity account, so when things come up I feel led to give to, I have a pot of money there to dip into.
Most years I give most of it around the holidays or if a disaster strikes suddenly (like Katrina or 9-11) though one year I had a lot leftover and used it to fund a volunteer trip to Peru.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I noticed an article on CNN today about a charity that tries to arrive first to a disaster with special equipment for clean up and rescue. See: The First Response Team Website
That might be a good alternative if you want to give in preparation for a disaster.