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Another way of spending your money is to give some of your money away. “Why would I do that?” you ask. The answer is: because it is the right thing to do. Most of us think that poor people live in other countries around the world. The truth is, there are poor people everywhere. Poor people do not have a lot of money, food, or clothing. Sometimes they are homeless or live in places that would be hard for us to imagine—like under bridges or in their cars.
When a country has economy problems, the poor get even poorer and other people become poor, too. The Great Depression is an example of this. Lots of men traveled across the country looking for work, but there were no jobs for them. Their families were thrown out of their homes, had to beg for food, or didn’t have enough clothing to keep them warm. Some people are still just as poor and in need as people were during the Great Depression. Young people like us need to step forward and do what we can to help these people.

Time: People donate their time to help in ‘soup kitchens’ where poor people can come to get food. They can deliver food to older people who can’t get out anymore. Kids like us can help out at hospitals—delivering newspapers, working in the gift shop, or running errands. We can donate some time to a nursing home, an animal shelter, or collect for UNICEF (or another good cause).
Used things: When we grow out of coats and clothing, they can be donated to area churches, the Salvation Army, or some other charity that will deliver them to needy people.
New things: Some of these things would be canned food for your town food pantry, toys for the United State Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, the Salvation Army Angel Tree program where you choose a card from a tree that lists what someone needs—and buy it for them. Using your money will provide a needy person with something he/she needs AND make you feel good, too.
Money: Lots of projects just need money. Some of these things are UNICEF, animal abuse, environmental organizations, and cancer research. There are thousands of really good organizations that need money.

As children, we need a parent’s permission to do these things.
Since this site is how to use your money in the best ways and, as kids, you probably have never given your own money away, you need to do a little work before you donate. Try these things:

Sit down and figure out what kind of organization you would like to give money to. Do you worry about how stray animals are treated? Do you have a relative who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease? Does water pollution make you angry? Does homelessness make you sad? Pick an organization that means something to you.
Sometimes kids like to donate money to organizations that help other kids. It’s something to think about.
Decide if you want a national/international organization like the Red Cross or something closer to home like a food pantry or animal shelter.
Check out your library or go online to places like Idealist.org where non-profit organizations are listed.
Search for organizations that believe in what you believe in.
Check to see how much of every donated dollar will actually go towards the cause. For example, let’s say you want to give to “Kids Can Read”, a make-believe organization that buys books for needy children. When you look it up online, you find that each dollar you give is split between fund-raising costs, administration costs, and the actual book buying and giving. When you look closer, you see that of every dollar only 30 cents actually gets spent on books. This means that the rest of that dollar is being spent on paying the people who buy the books, office supplies, posters, and advertisements. Since most people say that a good non-profit organization spends at least 60 cents of every dollar on giving, our make-believe reading one would not be rated highly.
Have a parent help you with the donation. We know it’s your money, but sometimes an older person can help pick the organization. They have a right to know where you are giving your money, too.

The amount of money that you give depends on the amount of money that you have. Figure out how much money is a reasonable amount. Sometimes kids take a percentage of their allowance and save it for giving. Depending on the charity you select, decide when you want to donate. Toys for Tots is usually done for Christmas. You buy toys for needy children who might not have a Christmas without them.