Donating to Charity
Tens of thousands of children are going to starve to death in the West African Nation of Niger unless they get aid. In fact, 1.2 million people are starving. It's a crisis that could have been avoided, according to the United Nations. But it seems no one was listening to the warnings last year. Donating to charity can help their lives.
Donating to charity is admirable, but be sure that you're careful when you declare your donations as deductions. Year after year, the IRS looks at the charitable donation deduction with unscrupulous attention.
"It is really unusual for people to give more than 10% of their income - 10% is an extremely large number. The average is really about 2%,"
The best thing you can do is give to organizations with which you are familiar:
* Your company's charitable foundation
* The local chapter of the Red Cross
* Some other organization with a mission and management team you can trust.
"Donating to charity is good for the brain," The Chicago Tribune declared, and a CNN report spoke of the pleasure the brain experiences after a person makes a contribution