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Give to Charity Without Spending Any Money

BY READERS DIGEST

1st Jan 2015 Managing your Money

Give to Charity Without Spending Any Money
Charities are suffering because many of us feel we can’t afford to give as much as we’d like but you can still give to your favourite cause without spending a penny.

1. Shop online for cashback

  • Give or Take (giveortake.com) allows you to earn cash from purchases made online—and then offers the choice of giving it to charity. During registration you’ll be asked to choose whether you’re a “Giver” or a “Taker”. Once £25 has been generated, Givers will see their cashback donated monthly to their charity, and Takers will get money paid straight into their personal account.

2. Charity credit cards

  • These allow you to donate money as you spend, without any extra cost to yourself. A host of banks offer credit cards that donate a percentage to good causes, including MBNA (RSPCA, WWF, Dogs Trust), and the Co-operative (Think). 
  • However, do check the amount actually given to the charities. Quite often it’s too small to be worth it, and you’d be better off using a cashback card then donating your own cash back to the charity.

3. Triodos Bank

  • Triodos Bank lends money to businesses and charities it deems to be of social or ecological benefit, and it’s the only commercial bank in the UK that allows customers to see precisely who they lend their money to. Triodos will also donate 0.25% of your total end-of-year balance to whichever cause you choose.
  • With Triodos, you’ll need £100 to open a Charity Saver account, and there’s a range of organisations you can help. Interest rates for savings with the Charity Saver account are 0.05% for over £100, 0.10% for £5,000+, while an account with over £25,000 will benefit by 0.15% AER.

4. Gift Aid

  • Gift Aid is a government initiative that allows charities to claim back the basic rate of tax on contributions made by UK citizens. This means that for every pound you give, your chosen charity will receive an extra 25p from the Inland Revenue—at no extra cost to you. 
  • To use Gift Aid, you must pay income or capital-gains tax and have paid enough in the tax year in question to cover the amount the charity will reclaim.

5. Recycle for charity

  • You can recycle and give to charity at the same time! Everyday office items such as mobile phones, inkjet cartridges and laptops can be recycled with Greensource (greensourcesolutions.co.uk), which will help a charity.

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