<p>My high school, a public charter, recently started an Annual Fund solicitation this year, so we gave a token amount. I also donated a token amount of my own savings to Telluride Association, which awards full scholarships to all program participants. I don’t have a job in HS, but in college I plan to continue the same trend–small, consistent amounts–in contributing to TA and my alma mater’s financial aid. I could not/will not attend either without substantial FA, so I see it as karmic duty. As more funds become available, I’ll add medical/social charities that are important to me; atheist support organizations, for instance, are high on the list. I never benefited from that sort of “faith” organization, but I’d love for others in the future to have that chance.</p>
<p>Colleges are fairly low on the list of organizations to which we donate. I do not give to any of the universities I attended for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I got no financial aid from any of them even though I desperately needed it. We’re full pay, so I’d rather save the money to pay for our own children’s educations. DH does give generously to one of his schools (a law school that gave him a free ride and a wonderful education), but not the others.</p>
<p>We give to a variety of causes.</p>
<p>ALS Association (we could never begin to give back all they have done for us)</p>
<p>Humane Society - both money and time</p>
<p>Local soup kitchen - both money and time + son started a holiday tree for the children’s Christmas party that is still active each year (provides gloves, hats and socks for the children)</p>
<p>We buy food every month for a local lady on disability (she makes to much for foodstamps but not enough to buy food)</p>
<p>We usually buy about 20 extra Christmas presents for children at our church whose parents can’t afford to buy.</p>
<p>Church </p>
<p>And we did just send off a check as a donation to S’s university. We are very blessed that he was able to obtain the funding to attend. Our donation is extremely small compared to the opportunity he has been given.</p>
<p>We regularly give the $5 here or there as the opportunity arises.</p>
<p>we have made it very clear to the colleges that ANY financial support from our family will come from what our kids can afford to give after they graduate. if it turns out they are not employable (or only so at low salaries) despite having a degree, then that can only serve as some indication that the school failed to meet the kid’s needs for financial support in post graduation endeavors. that’s how we see it anyway.</p>
<p>Until 5 years or so I’d guess about 25% of our donations went to colleges that Mom30togo and I attended (we were somewhat professional students so it is a lot of schools). Then there was a specific local fundraising activity that radically changed our gift giving … now colleges are in the 2-3% range … and actually most national organizations are relatively low also … and we have seriously ramped up our donations to local organizations whether they be programs at our kid’s school or local community organizations or the local precens of national organization. In essence our gift giving has evolved towards the old refraim of … “think globally; act locally”</p>