With a new year comes new life and opportunities. Though we tend to focus on personal challenges for New Year's resolutions, a great way to make a positive impact is to help others. To help you weave social awareness into your resolutions in 2018, the team at BentallGreenOak Residential Services has curated a list of ways to kick off the new year with compassion.
Make a Financial Donation
In Canada there are over 86,000 charitable organizations. When it comes to donating to a cause, most Canadians focus on the largest, most well-known charities. Meanwhile, there are innumerable small operations run by passionate people doing admirable work on a shoestring budget that are equally deserving of support. Do some research and check out the essential stats: efficiency, the costs of fundraising, and aspects of governance and transparency. Bigger isn't better and recognized names by definition get more attention. Take time to do some research before donating. Find out more.
Donate Food
For a lot of us, donating food tends to only happen during Christmas, school drives, or at shows or events. Truth is, the need is constant. But it's not always clear for the average person where to go to help out or donate. Enter Food Banks Canada. Offering an easy search engine interface, their site makes it easy to locate food banks all across Canada, both for donations and volunteering. Through the site you can also find out what types of food are in need, make a financial donation, and get more information. Check it out here.
Volunteer
More than half of Canada's 161,000 nonprofit and charitable organizations rely solely on volunteers. 12.7 million volunteers contribute close to 2 billion hours annually to organizations all across the country. They help improve quality of life for others, and also gain valuable experience and skill development in the process. To get involved, check your local volunteer center, and search for openings that suit your skill set and experience. You can also take a volunteer quiz to see what you'd be right for. Get more info here.
Offer food, not Money, to the Homeless
While it can be easy to give loose change to a homeless person, it's better to offer food where possible. You can't always trust what that money will be spent on and in many cases evidence of substance abuse is obvious. While in cases not preferred (or even accepted), an offering of food is positive, useful, and immediately beneficial. Pick up a few extra grocery items to give to homeless people you encounter or buy them a meal or a drink outright.
The BentallGreenOak Residential Services blog team hopes this list gives you some ideas for how to make a positive impact in 2018. To learn more about our Forever Green program, and get more information about BentallGreenOak properties in your city, please visit our website.