I do not have a formula for giving. I do not give to a worship community, though the charitable work that I give the most money to is faith-based.
I really do not count all my giving in money terms. There are little services I can often give it to people who cannot afford it by the usual means. Sometimes it does cost me money to give in this way. For example, I will give "taxi" rides to people. All sorts of people for all sorts of reasons. I once had a regular date with an old man who was in the Salvation Army program to get off alcohol. I drove him to his chemotherapy appointments and back "home" to the Salvation Army center. It wasn't part of an organized program on the part of wither the hospital or the Sal Army. A friend of mine who is a social worker was aware of the man's unmet need and asked me to do it, so I did. I also have taken a woman with no income to appointments for laser surgery (funny-- Medicaid was paying for eye surgery but not for the eyeglasses she would need.) I've driven people to work regularly until they could get enough money to buy a car. Twice, I drove a woman to a chiropractor who offered free care to a indigent people. That was another situation where a friend asked me to help out someone I did not previously know. I've taken people to the grocery store regularly or just sporadically. I see ownership of a car as a blessing that should be shared. I have a heart for the poor and one of the biggest problems of the poor in my city is transportation.
Having a spouse with a decent income gives me the ability not to have to work for a living. I spread that blessing by being available to others who do not the luxury of time to take care of some pretty important things. And I believe that is just as important as giving money. There are all sorts of things I do along those lines. I went to city hall a couple weeks ago to get an affadavit showing inheritance of property neighbors who were really pressed for time. I taught a young man to parallel park so that he could get a driver's license, even arranging to borrow an automatic car for him to learn on and take the test with as mine is standard transmission. With the driver's license and his aunt's 1984 Honda, he was able to get to his first year of community college. Today I spent a couple hours with a 3 year old who speaks no English but whose parents both work. I will spend a lot of time with her in the next months to help transition her to daycare as her visiting grandparents must leave the country in a couple months. It used a gallon of gas to go there and back, plus I bought a couple little things to catch her interest in order to begin to gain the trust of this reserved little girl who has already been majorly uprooted twice in her life.
You know, some of that sort of giving means you become a friend of someone you did not know before or barely knew. As you make friends, it becomes something you just do for a friend, maybe a friend of a sort you never dreamed you'd have. Then, it is hard to call what you do an act of charity. So, if you were keeping accounts on your giving (10% of gross or whatever), you'd have to delete that from the column of "Giving" wouldn't you? And you'd have to take on more to meet the 10% goal....No. I do not keep count of my giving. I do not budget for it. (I've said here before that I am one user of this forum who does not budget at all.) And I do not write out a check at the end of the year to top it up at 10% of gross or any other number.
Yes, I do give to beggars on the street and parking lots, but that has not happened for a while. I know a lot of people think that is wrong, but I do not....I give to an investigative/educational effort regularly, though I admit not as often as the solicit....I drop money in the Salvation Army buckets in winter.
I don't know. I have no real policy, but I find lots of ways to give both money and time personally, and that is my preferred way. I prefer to address the needs I personally see.
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