Sweet Charity (no, I don't mean Shirley)

The desire to do good or the act of generosity towards others or towards humanity

It seems to me that there are two ways to be charitable; you can dig-in and get your hands dirty, or you can write a cheque. Since I’m pretty much a clean-hands guy, our benevolence is usually financial. We give $1 a day to each The Caring Cupboard (our local food bank), to The Aids Committee of Toronto and to our local animal shelter of choice, Animal Aide. Annually, that’s a very small percent of our income, perhaps the yearly cost to run a car, which we don’t have, or maybe the cost of a gym membership, which we also don't have but likely should. It’s an amount we feel we can regularly commit to, and still live a life which is far more comfortable than 90% of the planet.

We also aspire to be charitable of spirit and try not to judge because, in reality, most of us are just one bad twist-of-fate away from being bumped to the bottom of life’s ladder.

For those of us who would do more if we could afford to and if it was convenient, I've discovered a couple of easy-peasy www-ways to do good;

A Scottish organization we support, called Trees for Life, brought to our attention a U.K. search engine (just like Google or Yahoo) called Everyclick. I use foreign search engines fairly often, especially when I'm searching for something which is specifically not North American, or when I want to double-check something reported in the Canadian or U.S. news. And when I use Everyclick, the charity of my choice benefits.

Just by doing my regular internet search, using Everyclick instead of Google, advertisers who pay for ads or sponsor links will compensate Everyclick, who will, in turn, make a charitable donation. So far my searches have helped raise $1,200.00 cdn for Trees for Life. As well, Everyclick has won several awards, including the Hottest New Start Up at the Imperative Digital Awards and Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in Ethical Business awards for co-founder Polly Gowers.

A bit closer to home ...



I recently received an e-newsletter from the Canadian Wildlife Federation announcing their partnership with an organization called Clickgreener. If you use the Clickgreener website to connect with an on-line retailer and make a purchase, Clickgreener will donate 51% of the referral fee to one of the four connected charities (CWF, World Wildlife Foundation Canada, Carbonfund.org or Tree Canada).

All you have to do is start your shopping at the Clickgreener site and proceed to whatever store, Amazon.com for instance, then Amazon will pay Clickgreener a referral fee (4 – 8.5% for Amazon, which would be $2 to $4.25 on a $50.00 purchase), of which clickgreener.com will donate 51% ($1 to $2.17) to one of the 4 charities. And you pay exactly the same price – it’s a win-win arrangement!

Their top five stores and referral fees;
Amazon.ca – 4 – 8.5%
Apple Store Canada – 1 – 5%
Canadian Tire – 5%
Indigo Books and Music – 5 – 8.5%
Tiger Direct Canada – 3 – 6%

So, charities are taking the lead from financial corporations, banks and investment companies, and are making it convenient and stress free for us to put our money to work for us, in a manner that can make a difference.

Now, if banks would just donate a few cents every time you went to their website to pay a bill or manage your money.

What a wonderful world it would be.