Giving Challenges make supporting causes you care about a part of your financial wellness routine. There are many ways to gamify giving and different types of giving challenges you can participate in. This ultimate giving challenges guide will teach you all about the power of giving challenges, determine which challenge is right for you, and how to get started.
If you are interested in learning more about financial gamification in general check out Ostrich’s ultimate financial gamification guide.
Why Giving Challenges
Giving money to causes that are aligned with our values helps create a better world and makes us feel good. Yet, it isn’t always easy creating a plan to donate money. Using giving challenges, you can make giving more fun and ensure that you get the most out of each donation that you make.
What are Giving Challenges
Giving challenges are game-like challenges that last a set period of time, have a regular check-in, and have a specified goal. Giving challenges can be done by individuals, couples, or even groups of people. Research from the American Society of Training has shown that combining a regular progress check-in with an accountability partner increases your likelihood of achieving a goal by 95%. Ostrich’s giving challenges lean into this finding by making it easy to find and invite others with similar goals to be your accountability partner in giving challenges.
Types of Giving Challenges
The key characteristics to pay attention to when identifying the right giving challenge for you are the length of the challenge, the frequency of the check-in, and the goal.
Length of the challenge
How long will the giving challenge last? It’s important to set an end date. Even if you intend to continue the giving challenge into the future, the end date helps you stick to the goal in the short term. At the end of the giving challenge, you can always start again or update your donation goal.
Common challenge lengths include:
- 3+ months giving challenges; examples include Don’t Hate Donate & Furry Friends.
- 6 weeks or less giving challenges; examples include Random Acts, Gratitude Gang, & Giving Tuesday.
Frequency of the check-ins
The second factor to consider is how frequently you wish to check in for your giving challenge. It’s important to keep your goals top of mind, but you also have to be realistic in your ability to give on a regular basis.
Common giving challenge check in frequencies are:
- Daily Giving Challenges, such as Random Acts.
- Weekly Giving Challenges, such as Giving Tuesday & Gratitude Gang.
- Monthly Giving Challenges, such as Don’t Hate Donate & Furry Friends.
Goal setting
The third major part of a giving challenge is the goal. What is that you want to accomplish? It could simply be giving more regularly, supporting a special cause, or having extra cash dedicated to random acts of kindness.
Example goals include:
- Tithing to your religious organization.
- Supporting special fundraising events.
- Giving back through random acts of kindness.
- Donating to a non-profit or charity on a regular basis.
Who Should Use Giving Challenges?
Giving challenges are great for anyone who wants to do good but often finds it hard to prioritize giving back regularly. Because giving challenges can be done with others, a group giving challenge is a great way to get your partner, family, and friends to give together and maximize your donations.
Implementing Your Giving Challenge
Giving challenges can be done the old-fashioned way on pen and paper, in group chats, or using Ostrich’s mobile app.
Ostrich’s app has built-in reminders, rewards, and tracking to make it as easy as possible to get started and stick to a giving challenge. Additionally, it’s easy to invite others to join you in group challenges and keep your dollar amounts private to you so you can participate with others who have different financial situations.
We recommend using whatever tool works best for you.
Tips for Giving to Charity
Two of the most challenging parts of donating are finding organizations that align with your values and finding organizations that maximize the impact of your donation.
Luckily Give Well takes the guesswork out of understanding which non-profits to support. They have a calculator that shows you what percentage of your donation goes towards making an impact.
But there are other ways to give back that don’t involve money. Some include:
Donating time
Oftentimes volunteering goes further than donations. Non-profits can always use extra volunteers. Check out the Furry Friends challenge for all of you animal lovers out there.
Donating to individuals
To make a difference, you don’t have to go through a non-profit. Visit Go Fund Me, Donors Choose, or another giving platform to find an individual you wish to support. Also checkout the Random Acts giving challenge for more ways to give back to others.
Being kind
Try sending someone you care about a card in the mail. Or surprise them by sending their favorite dinner to their door. Send a surprise Venmo out of the blue. Being kind is always cool. Check out Ostrich’s Gratitude Gang challenge for expressing kindness to those who have impacted your life.
Donating your skills
Another great way to give back is to donate your skills. Barbers giving free haircuts to the homeless. Carpenters helping repair a religious organization’s building. A software engineering reworking a website for a non-profit.
Which of your skills could you donate to a cause you care about?
Benefits of a Giving Challenge
Improve Your Health
Research shows that donating money activates the pleasure centers in your brain. Those pleasure chemicals will make you feel good and can even lower your blood pressure.
Inspire Others
Giving back is contagious and will inspire others to support the causes they care about. When kids see their parents donate money, they are more likely to become generous themselves. Participating in a giving challenge can multiply the impact of your giving through inspiration.
Feel Wealthier
Yep, that’s right. You don’t have to double your income to feel wealthier. The simple act of giving to charity makes you feel wealthier according to research by professors Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton.
Tax Deductions
You can deduct certain charitable donations to a qualified 501c3 from your taxes under certain circumstances. For most people this won’t be the case, but depending on your financial situation you could receive a tax deduction for your generosity.
Better Habits
Giving on a regular basis could impact other parts of your life. From your mood and happiness levels, to how you save and invest. One small change through a giving challenge can cause a positive ripple effect.
Gain Confidence
As you make progress towards your financial goals, you’ll gain more confidence. A giving challenge can help you gain confidence in yourself and the ability you have to make a difference in the world.
Tools to Make Giving Easy
Automate Donations
Some charities have the option of setting up recurring donations. If you know there’s an organization you wish to support, recurring donations will make it easy to provide ongoing support.
Baby Steps
Giving through smaller donations while you build wealth is a great tool to continuously support the causes you care about without breaking the bank.
Giving challenges to explore include Don’t Hate Donate, Random Acts, Gratitude Gang, Furry Friends, & Giving Tuesday.
What to do with your newfound habit
Pat yourself on the back and enjoy the gift of giving. Your donations support a better world and have a real impact on solving problems. If there are other areas of your finances that need attention, you can apply the same principles from your giving challenge to those. Building good money habits doesn’t have to be hard. Join Ostrich to discover other ways to improve your finances.
Conclusion
Giving challenges make supporting causes you care about fun, simple, and keeps you accountable to your goals. There are different types of giving challenges that can be customized to meet your financial goals. When you participate in giving challenges with others you increase your chance of success and feel good sharing your wins with others. Using Ostrich, you can find the perfect giving challenge for you and even invite your friends to join you. Download Ostrich to get started on your first giving challenge today!
