There was a time when I heard about “donations”, “donating”, “donate”, I would think of donations in the form of money and then I discovered that you can actually do more. Money is not the only thing you can donate. 

You can give:
1) your time – by dedicating some time to volunteer to do something without getting paid. Examples: going to clear the land of an elderly person for planting at no charge, or going to help take care of kids who have been orphaned regularly. Another example is offering to mentor children, young people, or adults at no cost.

2) services – you can offer the services you usually get paid for, for free. Example – Doctors offering to attend to people in a certain community at no cost. What service do you have that you can offer to help someone? Sometimes you can offer it at a very low cost, maybe to cover an unavoidable cost. e.g.  Offering to develop a website for free, but the beneficiaries have to pay for their own domain and hosting. 

3) devices – we are a tech-based initiative that advocates for the adoption of digital skills to improve livelihoods. Whilst we can train and show people how to do this at no or little cost, the beneficiaries may not have access to devices to continuously use. So we are always looking for new and well-refurbished laptops and tablets to help people create income consistently. That is an example of donating devices. 

4) skills – do you sew, knit paint, draw or build? You can donate this skill towards a philanthropic cause. An example would be going to sew re-usable sanitary wear for girls at a designated place or from home. Another example if going to help build homes or classrooms for a marginalised community.

5) gifts – you can give good clothing, shoes, books, stationery, school bags, blankets or baby wear etc. This goes a long way in helping the beneficiary who may belong to a home or has fallen on bad times to keep going. 

6) resources – do you have access to a resource e.g. advertising space online or offline? You can donate that so that a philanthropic cause is amplified. Getting the word out can be difficult so that is an awesome way to make a difference.

Whilst the list above is not exhaustive, I hope it gives you a clearer picture of how you can #MakeADifference without giving money. This could be your AHA moment.