Millions of people in the United States alone give to charity to support causes they believe in and to experience the positive effect it has on their own lives. Below are five unique ways to give back to your community, the environment, and strangers in need.
1. Join the Be the Match bone marrow registry
A bone marrow transplant can help one of the thousands of people diagnosed every year with life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. Joining the Be the Match registry is a simple as answering questions about your health online and sending in your DNA using a free cheek swab kit sent from the registry.
If you are eligible to donate, you will be added to the registry where you will have the opportunity to be matched with a person in need of a transplant. The registry currently includes more than 19 million volunteers who stand ready to be a life-saving bone marrow donor. You can also join the Be the Match community as a volunteer or donator.
2. Donate blood to American Red Cross
Blood is essential for surgeries, cancer treatment, chronic illnesses, and traumatic injuries. Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood, and whether a patient receives whole blood, red cells, platelets or plasma, this lifesaving care starts with a generous donation. The American Red Cross hosts blood drives across the nation and offers a variety of volunteering opportunities.
3. Complete the QPR Institute’s Gatekeeper Training
The QPR Institute aims to save lives and reduce suicidal behaviors by providing innovative, practical and proven suicide prevention training. QPR training—Question, Persuade, and Refer—teaches people to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help. Each year, thousands of Americans complete the one hour, $29 online course to save the life of a friend, colleague, family member, or neighbor.
4. Adopt a wild animal
The World Wildlife Fund offers symbolic adoption kits for a variety of endangered wild animal species including tigers, pandas, snowy owls, pygmy elephants, and many more. Each kit contains a stuffed animal, an adoption certificate, information on the species, a photo, and gift bag. All of the proceeds from the kit help protect the endangered animals and their habitats, and aids in the nonprofit's conservation efforts. WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by more than one million members in the United States and nearly five million globally.
5. Register for Charity Navigator
The Charity Navigator is the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. In order to help donors, a team of professional analysts examines tens of thousands of non-profits to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess America's both best-known and smaller charities. By registering for Charity Navigator, you have the opportunity to find credible organizations to volunteer for and donate to. The online platform allows users to flag and organizes charities of interest in their own charity portfolio. It will also allow you to track your donations and manage any recurring donations.
