Four years of consumption offsets and going strong.

[zestyping]

In 2010, I decided to start matching everything I spend on a non-essential purchase with an equal donation to an effective charity. It's worked for me; even though mechanisms like this are arbitrary, it feels more logical than choosing a percentage of income. It feels nice that spending money on nice things for myself and my friends is aligned

Comments

[anemone]

I give mostly via paycheck deduction. I set up it up October for the following year. It's no where near as much as you, but more than my coworker who has "doubled his contribution every year for the last 25 years". This is very convenient, but it's also very, hmm, cold. It takes any compassion out of donating, because it's only that one day in October in which I have to think it at all. I also give to charities of various facebook friends. Around Christmas, I try to contribute to giving trees and toy drives, but the time constraints make that difficult. (It's actually only reasonable due to Amazon prime.)

(My mother does lots of giving trees. She also always shops to donate to the food bank--like if cheese or peanut butter is on sale, she'll pick some up for the food bank.)

choosing the organizations you support?

I divide my donations into four groups based on whether they are local or global, and based on whether they address immediate, pressing needs (eg, Doctors without Borders globally, food banks locally), and those that help fix problems (eg, Grameen foundation globally). I find it hard to compare the value of feeding a kid to the value of proving support that makes it less likely a kid will need emergency food aid, so I do both. And while money goes to better use globally, it seems a little cold somehow to make the sort of decision to ignore those nearby because money is better used elsewhere.

It may be good for me to consider adding on a scheme like yours.

(btw, your charity:water link is broken)