By Anne Levy-Ward
Listen to your heart and pay less tax by donating to charity this holiday season.
Like many people this holiday season, your mailbox and email inbox must be overflowing with greeting cards, mail order catalogs, promotional calendars, flyers, and requests for charitable donations. . If you are delighted to hear from friends or distant relatives, or even to leaf through the guides in which you are given gift suggestions, you are probably less happy to be inundated with requests for money.
Many people respond to appeals for their generosity, often made at the end of the year. This is why charities do so much at this time of year. According to 30 Years of Giving in Canada, a 2018 report by the Rideau Hall Foundation and Imagine Canada, Canadians gave some $14.3 billion to charities and nonprofits in 2014. In addition, many organizations report receiving most of their donations at the end of the year.
“It is thanks to the donations received in December that young people can benefit from our help and support throughout the year,” explains Carol Reist, executive director at the charity The Dam.
If you have never made a donation and you do not know where to turn, given the number of requests you receive, here are three questions to ask yourself to make your decision:
