1/1/11: Started The Daily Give.
In 2011 I am starting a project inspired, and in fact completely designed, by Carlos Garcia who dreamed up Living Philanthropic. Every day I will donate money to a different charity. While Carlos budgeted $5 daily, I am able to do $3 and hope that this will increase later in the year. Realistically I know that my $3 donation will not help an organization in any meaningful way, but my goal is greater than that, both personally and for the charities I choose, as well as philanthropy in general.
On a personal level, as a single mother barely getting bills paid, I have a need within myself to feel like I am contributing to the causes that mean a lot to me, even though at any given time I can rarely sacrifice $20 or $100 for a particular fundraising campaign when I hear about it. But I can tell myself, every two weeks when I receive my paycheck, that $42 of it is already spoken for. It’s one night every two weeks I can’t go out to dinner, an outfit a month I can’t purchase, more creativity with more limited resources in the kitchen, maybe cutting some of our cable features or bring lunch to work instead of grabbing it on the run. But it will go to a greater need than my simplistic, material needs. And at the end of the year I will have contributed more than $1000, proving that there is room for giving in my life instead of feeling like it continues to be taken from me for bills, bills, and more bills.
But on a greater plane than myself, with the internet I have the capability of reaching many others. My $3 may not make much impact, but how many people can I inspire to also give $3? And how many people can they inspire? One person’s $3 donation can easily turn into $1000s and that is my hope here. While I would like to promote lesser-known organizations, I also hope that others are inspired by y efforts just as Carlos Garcia has inspired me. Please join me on this journey. If you know of any worthwhile charities that should be a part of this movement, let me know about them.
I do have rules for the charities that I will give to and promote:
1. The charities have to have solid ratings with Charity Navigator, a watchdog group that assesses the financial health of nonprofits for potential donors. Groups will have to have three, or preferably four, stars with Charity Navigator to earn a recommendation. This is a little difficult for me to say because at least one of my favorite charities has a very high two star rating, but in order for me to feel like my recommendations are going to the best and strongest advocates, I feel this criterion is necessary.
2. I try not to donate to organizations with a religious foundation, for reasons that are quite solid but that I’d rather not explain here because someone will take it much more personally than it is intended. I am likely to make exceptions for museums, for the sake of preserving cultural history, and I may occasionally make exceptions for social organizations that aid children or the poor, or do disaster relief, particularly if the population they are aiding is generally of the same religion.
3. I will do my best to refrain from politics in this endeavor, but as a passionate liberal American, you will occasionally see groups that are far more left leaning than an organization you will want to support if you don’t agree with my politics. For example, you may see a feature for the four-star The Guttmacher Institute at some point, a research group considered to be liberal that focuses on reproductive and sexual health, but I can promise you today that by the end of 2011 you will have not once seen a recommendation for the also four-star NRA Foundation. If you find my politics offensive or just wrong, feel free to not follow my recommendation, or make your donation for the day to a group that is more reflective of your beliefs. There is no room for petty squabbling here, so please leave it at that.
LET THE GIVING BEGIN!
This was started in 2010 but I failed miserably. Take 2: 20
- Build shelving units
- Make a moustache hat
- Mail cookies at Christmas
- Pass PRAXIS
- Make my own pasta
- Get a tattoo
- Make tiropitas
- Make a bird cage lamp
- Get a palm reading
- Volunteer on Thanksgiving
- Volunteer on Christmas
- Visit a ghost town
- Attend a seance
- Build a snowman
- Take Lily to the National Zoo
- Make fortune cookies
- Build a sand castle
- Hang wallpaper
- Sew a dress
- Kayak
- Attend a murder mystery dinner theatre
- Attend a dog show
- Donate $3 a day to charity
- Take Lily to Carowinds
- Start a savings account
- Build a turtle pond
- Etsy shop
- Grow tomatoes
- Learn alphabet in ASL
- Send Valentine’s cards
- Send Christmas cards
- Give everyone I love homemade Christmas gifts
- Ride in a glass bottom boat
- Light a fire in the chimney
- Pay increase/promotion
- Put my entertainment center back together
- Set up a craft room in the garage
- Start a bamboo garden
- Start a food blog
- Start a craft blog
- Learn how to make shoes
- Fold 1,000 paper cranes and send them to Hiroshima for Peace Day (83/1000)
- Participate in the Window Farms Project
- Visit Salem, Mass
- Get a grill and master it
- Become a coupon diva
- Make a souffle
- Learn to change a tire and remember it this time
- Redo my godawful kitchen counter in Legos
- See a psychic
- Create a podcast
- Attend church at least 10 times
I encourage you to start your own 101 in 1001 list; for more information refer to 101 Goals in 1,001 Days website. This was originally started on 01/01/2010 and then abandoned, because 2010 didn’t go according to plan and I was overwhelmed. I head into 2011 with the knowledge that it will be overwhelming and I am plowing ahead anyway but I’m changing my expectations into hopes so that I don’t drop everything with my very first failure. I’m not changing my start and end date because I think it’s still do-able.
Begin: 01/01/2010
End: 09/26/2012
- Attend a film festival
- Attend a roller derby match
- Ride in a hot air balloon
- Attend a Murder Mystery
- Join a book club
- Ride a horse
- Write a children’s book
- Wreck This Journal
- Learn to sew
- Knit
- Go to a burlesque show
- Learn to play poker
- Learn origami
- Complete a 365 day photo challenge
- Design a website
- Get published
- Learn to ice skate
- Sell my photography
- Join a choir
- Host a holiday cookie exchange
- Attend a symphony
- Go to a comedy show
- Finish master’s degree
- Get a treadmill
- Swim
- Pass PRAXIS
- Student teaching
- Set up screenprinting in the garage
- Reconcile
- Home crafting business
- Send letters and cards weekly
- Start a card list
- Visit Elise in Hawaii
- Cross-country road trip
- Dance lessons
- Become a hosting diva
Tame the hair11/2010- Get a palm reading
- Celebrate a holiday every day for a year
- Become a Washington Beard
- Become a Grill Mastah
- Make a turtle pond
- Get a chihuahua
Get a hedgehog12/2010Bunnies!3/2010- Monster truck rallies. Many. (1/many) 2/12/2010
- Take Lily to NYC
- Go to an App State game
- Explore a ghost town
- Decorate my house
- Take Lily to DC at least twice a year (0/5)
- Go all out for Christmas
- Become a Toil Girl
- Set up a dark room
- Produce Lily’s webshow
- Learn to make tiropitas
- Learn Greek
- Spend at least one week traveling in Ireland
- Carry on basic conversation in French
- Create a scavenger hunt for Lily
- Create a Chia Pet herb garden
- Plan and landscape herb garden
- Design blog
- Blog at least 3 times per week for a year (0/156)
Send Valentine’s cards beginning in 20102/2011- Keep a birthday list and send cards
- Send holiday cards beginning in 2011
- Send random Amazon gifts to 4 people (0/4)
- Send cookies to one person once a month (0/12)
- Start a daily gratitude journal
- Make candles and soaps
- Take Lily to Guatemala
- Daily random act of kindness
- Tramp stamp
- Yoga 3 times per week by June 10, 2011.
- Volunteer on Christmas and Thanksgiving in 2011 (0/2)
Pumpkin2/2010- Learn to say ILY in 52 languages (2/52)
- Leave 25 notes in library books (0/25)
- Participate in 100 Strangers project
- Go on 1 trip per month (2/33)
- Vote in all elections
- Go scuba diving
- Decorate a wedding cake
- Raise chickens
- Send flowers to 15 people (0/15)
- Attend 12 live shows/concerts (2/12)
- Jog a mile
Finish finance class4/2010- 200 sit-ups
- 100 push-ups
- 200 squats
- Create a window farm
- Self-portrait every day for a year (0/365)
- Identify 15 constellations
- Stay at the Chateau Marmont and get some personalized stationary
- Visit the Underground Railroad Information Center and cross the Purple People Bridge in Cincinnati
- Write 50 haikus (0/50)
- Make a 7 layer chocolate cake
- Hike the Appalachian Trail
- Go whalewatching
Relaxed with Lily this morning without rushing – stayed up late to enjoy more time together
- Lily’s spirit
- My cute new outfit
- Snuggie!
- “thank you”
- making it through the day
My random acts of kindness over the last almost two weeks have been all about appreciating myself and my daughter. She’s my priority and if I’m overwhelmed, sick, or stressed then I’m not giving her what she deserves. Screw the rest until we get ourselves back on track.
- Lily
- A day off
- Time with my family
- clean laundry
- New clothes and new shoes for the first time in how long?!!?
Hmmm…I think it’s safe to say that I’m feeling overwhelmed and that 2010 isn’t turning out the way I’d envisioned it so far. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s very evident that if I want to accomplish what I’ve outlined for myself this year, I need to change my priorities and reevaluate what I’m doing. Work is not going very well, and rather than let this upset me, I think it’s a good thing. It’s keeping me from getting complacent; rather than stalling out and not making any progress, I’m ready to just move on.
I put an end to busting my ass for no apreciation. From now on it’s 50 hours of work max and no weekends. I’m enjoying all this extra time with Lily. This weekend I took Lily to Monster Jam in Charlotte and then down to Wilmington to visit my dad. We went on a ghost tour and Lily went to three of her favorite restaurants; we did a little more shopping than I could afford. Lily had a blast and it was nice to spend time with her, playing and laughing. There was insane snow on the trip from Charlotte to Wilmington, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much snow in Wilmington. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to make a snowman before the snow melted. I hope it snows one more time before the end of winter because I MUST make a snowman in 2010!
I’ve been sick with something or another for most of 2010 so far and today was no exception; I missed work but I refused to feel guilty or stressed about it. I enjoyed hanging out with Lily in the house, watching the Cake Boss and Singing Bee marathons, then doing laundry. A boring day for most people I’m sure but it was so, so nice, just being with her for an extra day. I actually haven’t been able to speak for most of the last three days, I must have laryngitis and I’m making it worse because I can’t shut up.
Will be back soon! Working jillions of hours and am exhausted! In the meantime I’m writing it all down so I will update in a couple of days.
Sarafem Falls 