Don’t Give Till It Hurts

I love this time of year, except for one teeny, tiny thing: charitable giving guilt. You know exactly what I’m talking about. We’ve all walked past that red bucket without dropping in any money. We’ve all said “no” to those requests at the checkout counter to donate $1 to some worthy cause.

Many of us got buried under giving guilt last week on Giving Tuesday. Social media was flooded with all sorts of calls to donate. I bet at least once that day, we felt a twinge or two of guilt if we didn’t hit the “Give Now” button.

A friend of mine shared a story that captures this situation perfectly. Out shopping last week, she dropped some money into one of those red buckets. Luckily, the bell ringer hadn’t changed by the time she exited the store. She knew he remembered her donation. No guilt was felt. But then she went to a second store. This one had a bell ringer, too.

Read the rest of the article on The New York Times.