After pouring a collective $4 billion into emergency relief efforts this year, donors may feel tapped out.
But at the start of the holiday season, there are other ways to support your favorite cause, even when you're short of cash. Often these noncash gifts are tax-deductible too.
"Clean out your closets, volunteer," suggested Trent Stamp, executive director of Charity Navigator. "There are things you can do without pulling out your credit card."
Typically about 50% of all charitable contributions are made during the holiday season, Stamp said. But this year -- with the Asian tsunami, the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Pakistan earthquake -- Americans were inundated with requests for disaster aid. Normally generous donors could be pulling at empty pockets this holiday season, leaving hundreds of local organizations that provide such things as food, shelter and environmental and animal services out in the cold.
On the bright side, the local charities most likely to feel the pinch also can benefit greatly from noncash gifts.
For instance, gifts of time are pivotal for Brothers' Helpers, a small charity dedicated to feeding homeless in Los Angeles, said founder John Olsen.
Brothers' Helpers, which operates out of St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Canada Flintridge, delivers 250 hot meals two nights a week to homeless people living on the outskirts of Chinatown.
The cost of each meal, which consists of chicken, rice, salad, beans, tortillas, sweets and coffee, is just $1, Olsen said. That low cost is made possible by volunteers, who use their own time, and sometimes their kitchens, to make the food, and their own cars to deliver it.
"We pick up food from stores every day of the week. We also collect clothing; wash it, fold it and send that downtown too," said Olsen, who runs the charity in his spare time. "Other than that, we are not really busy," he deadpanned.
If someone wants to give time rather than money, Olsen said, "We give them our schedule and put them to work."
Donors cannot claim tax deductions for their time, but they can take write-offs for out-of-pocket expenses while volunteering, Stamp said. However, it's up to the taxpayer to keep track of the costs.
Allowable costs include commuting expenses to and from the charity, meals and lodging on trips away from home on the charity's behalf, telephone calls, materials and supplies. Those who host a fundraiser for a charity can write off everything, including the invitations and the food and drink they supply.
