Giving to Charity without spending any (additional) $$$

There are many good organizations that serve families of children with disabilities that rely heavily on donations.  Some, such as our friends at Parent to Parent USA, manage on almost no budget at all.

Thanks to the internet, there are now ways to support these worthy causes without spending a dime, or at least not spending a dime more.

The most completely free is GoodSearch.  GoodSearch is just a yahoo powered search tool that donates a bit of each advertising dollar it receives (all search engines make dollars from ads) to a charity of your choosing.  The charity must be registered with GoodSearch, of course, but there are many to choose from and you can always ask the charity you want to contribute to to register with the site.  I am sending my GoodSearch pennies to P2P USA (they are registered).

GoodSearch is easy to use.  I recommend downloading their search tools for your browser--that way you have a goodsearch in your browser bar and you don't have to go to their site to search and donate.  BUT, make sure you remember to select the charity you wish to donate your GoodSearch profits to from their main page.

GoodSearch also has a companion site called GoodShop.  You can do online shopping through GoodShop at Amazon, Ebay, itunes, Toys R Us, Priceline, Flowers.com, Gap, and a whole bunch of other stores and services you'd recognize.  The Good part is that for every purchase, the company donates a certain % of the price to your selected charity.  Another service, Giveness, is very similar and seems to give a larger amount per purchase to your charity--although I don't think P2P USA is currently registered at Giveness.

If you are running a non-profit, there are a few other fundraising aids available that you should check out:

Google Grants -- provides in-kind advertising for non-profit groups to increase awareness and traffic to your site.  You have to apply, but the eligibility criteria doesn't seem to difficult to meet.

Fundable -- gives you a website to raise a specific amount of money for a particular event, goal, or purpose in a specific amount of time.  People can pledge money online to meet the $$ goal, and if the goal is met--it collects the cash.  If the goal is not met--it ends and the pledges are released.

cMarket Online Auctions -- a service that lets you put a charitable auction online.

Finally, there are few other sites that are worth a mention (even though they can't be used for family support and disability causes):

Free Rice--a vocabulary game that challenges you to identify the meaning of words . . . every correct answer gives a few grains of rice to the UN Food program and the bowls fill up reasonably quickly (especially if you are a vocab wiz, which I am not).

Ripple--you click, watch a brief advertisement, and they donate to some international causes providing water, food, education, or money (finance loans) to those in need.