I am now in the midst of formulating a charity giving strategy. The truth is that I have not been giving enough or tithing enough. Some common excuses (real or perceived) is inhibiting me.

Financially, my mortgage (25% of gross income), need to save for kids college education and retirement, plus regular household expenses get in the way (at least mentally). I also have not done any research on my favorite charity or some homework needs to be done. I do tithe. But I guess it is not 10% that I should and I want do.

Then, just a few days ago, I received my regular Amex emails. In this particular mail, they mentioned that you can set up an automatic charity donation from your credit card every month. Aside from a set and forget automatic charge to my Amex card, I can actually earn reward points! (Double points if I enroll before the end of December!). Amex also has over 1 million charitable organizations on their Membership Rewards program as well.

I have given myself a couple of task.

1. Research charity organizations - This will probably take a while, but I would like to donate to one which has a cause that resonates with me.

2. Decide on a monthly amount to donate - I now treat 10% as a goal rather than an ultimatum. Though I’m not at 10% yet, the aim is to gradually reach that goal and perhaps exceed it. Mentally, this sits better with me as I feel that I will be “consistently giving” even though it may fall shy of the 10% number. Consistent giving with a purpose in my opinion is better than random spur of the moment giving.

3. Put giving on autopilot - Since Amex allows you to automatically donate to charities through their credit cards, this is what I will do. This allows me to put everything on autopilot

I will provide updates on this progress in the future.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.