Charity Week – Break your Attachment with Money
POSTED BY ON August 6, 2012 COMMENTS (82)
We are all living in a world where we are conditioned and functioned to GET than to GIVE. Since childhood, I have been trained to focus more on getting than on giving. Getting good grades, getting admission in a good college, getting good placements, getting awards and getting good salary packages.
We had some realization that we would like to share with each one of you. We saw that the other side of getting is GIVING. The world of giving is much more magical than the world of getting and with this charity week, we would like each reader of Jagoinvestor to get in touch with the magic of GIVING. Tell me honestly, why do you get on Jagoinvestor – to get or to give? I am not saying getting is bad, it is important to givers so that they will have more to GIVE more. Some of you really take out time to forward good personal finance articles to your friends even if you know they wont read because you care for them.
Let’s not get stuck in the rat-race because even if we win, we will end up as a RAT. We are not saying become a saint, all we want to point out is that, as an investor you are much more than your bank balance, you are much more than your investment portfolio and the returns that you get. We want you to realize how wealthy you are in this moment.
ROI of your Life
With Charity Week, we want you to get in touch with the ROI you are going to get from YOUR LIFE and not just from your money. A Go-giver will always have highest ROI from his life because he is more of a contributor than a consumer. You experience life at its peak when you are a giver and not a taker. Three messages we learn t and we would like you to learn from Charity Week are:
1. Connect with power of Giving
I was really touched and moved when Manish shared this experience with me. Manish and his wife were traveling from Pune to Mumbai. When the bus got on expressway, the conductor found one villager in the bus who was not having money to buy the ticket. It seemed as if he has got into a wrong bus by mistake. As per the rules the conductor asked that person to get down from the bus. Everyone in the bus was watching what was going on and in that moment Manish and his wife decided to talk to the conductor. They told the conductor that whatever is the fair we will pay but allow this person to travel, don’t drop him on such lonely highway. Manish and his wife paid for that person’s ticket and conductor finally allowed that villager to travel. That villager’s eyes got wet and it carried immense acknowledgement for Manish and his wife. In that moment, Manish experienced some magic and that is the magic we want each one of you to get in touch with. When you a giver you operate from service and help someone.
The big lesson here is – “It takes an open heart to help someone and not a lot of money”
2. Wealth isn’t the end, it’s the beginning
One thing that we have realized is that wealth is not an end but it is always a beginning. I have a small garden in my backyard and I invest (notice I don’t spend time I invest my time) some time every day to be with nature. Any garden is initially a patch of land and then you plant a seed or a sapling, we start to give that seed all the Wealth of water, Wealth of fertile land and Wealth of sunlight, that is how the sapling or seed starts to grow and on one fine day, it starts to give flowers and fruits. The fruits and flowers blooming is not the wealth, the wealth happened in the beginning. As an investor you also need to get in touch with the wealth you start as an investor. You always have wealth of actions, wealth of time, wealth of ideas, wealth of dreams, wealth of people and blogs that can help you understand about money. Your job as an investor is to nurture your financial life with the wealth you BEGIN with.
The big lesson here – Wealth is not the end. It is always the beginning
3. Break your attachment with money
We wanted to do this charity week long back but at that time I was not making any donations. My attachment with money was massive; I was focusing more on what I can get rather than what I can give. The world of giving is always a world of abundance. One of the things we have realized is that even if you take away abundance from abundance it still remains abundant. I never use to give money to any needy person thinking these people don’t work hard and we should not encourage such things. I never gave money to any charitable organizations thinking my money will get misused.
I had some realization some time back. My father took me to a GAUSHALA (A Cowpen). I liked the place, I also had some interaction with the person who was managing that place, he shared with me how people donate and contribute with an open heart. He was full of love and service and he had no expectations from me or from anyone. In that Cowpen you can adopt a cow with some annual fees. Something happened to me in that space and my attachment with money broke. I made maximum donation I could on that day and it was a very fulfilling experience. From that day I am looking for opportunities where I can help or serve someone.
The big lesson here : Giving is one of the easiest, most difficult things you will ever do.
I and Manish always discuss that no matter what your salary is or which mutual funds you invest or how much gold you acquire, unless you break your attachment with money you will never become wealthy.
What some Charity Week Hero’s did in this Charity Week
See what Sam did
These days, we are so attached to the money that we hardly care about people in need. Couple of years back, one day i went to a small railway station near my house in Bangalore for a morning walk. (It has a long and nice platform
). After a while i sat on a bench, a train came. I was observing the people and its amazing that these people get up so early in the morning , travel so long to do their jobs & I don’t think they get huge salaries. At that moment i realised how lucky i am, that i have a good job, i can earn money by working on a computer. I also realised that i am in a position to help many people in need. Since then i started very small donations to couple of organizations, and also i came across a micro finance NGO – http://www.rangde.org where we can lend the money to poor people who wanna do small business. I am a regular investor in Rangde.
See what Sainath did
I like Akshya Patra and contribute for the outstanding service they are offering. To come up in life education is necessary. But what good the education is if we dont have lunch during school hours. How will we digest the knowledge without having proper food. Akshaya Patra provides lunch to loads os school students which i think is a very good initiative. I totally support them and will spread their work to all.
See what Suhas has done
I have right away donated Rs 4200/- for child education through net banking to smile foundation India. I wanted to do this since some time but got the timing today with your donation week. I storongly belive that only education can uplift this country from all the mess we are in. Thanks for bringing up the topic. and offcourse it feels gr8……:)) Keep up the good work………
See what Aparna did
Recently, we had been to Shimoga (a place near Bangalore) to a temple. There are around 23 boys who are sponsored by the temple committee. When we saw the boys, we went ahead and donated money so that these boys get good food to eat atleast once in a year. We are also planning to donate some money in the next year for the same cause. Also, recently, we donated around Rs. 17,000 to a boy who wanted to complete his education. We donate atleast Rs. 20,000 yearly. Its our routine
See What Sushil did
I have been donating Rs.300 to UNICEF children’s fund every month. I was shocked to hear this would help 120 newborns for polio medication. And Rs.1200 would take care of a child’s expenses. Yes, our petty amounts make HUGE differences somewhere!. It also has other donation campaigns, where u can donate any amount you wish to give every month. I am increasing it sooner
. In my hometown (Siruguppa) in Bellary district, Karnataka, I know a doctor who goes to villages teaching Dos and Donts, giving them free medication, helping them on monthly visits. I wish to donate some amount to his foundation soon.
See What Rajendra did
When you give without any expectation you get more. We experienced this when Rs 20400 has passed through our hands to reach Maaillu which takes care of 180 children who don’t have parents(www.maaillu.org) It is foolishness to feel that it is a donation- God gave us that great opportunity. We earned that money by doing another good work of helping others with the only intention of passing it to Maa illu. That extra work gave us real satisfaction than the giving, (giving became our duty). I feel that writing about charity is also the duty of you. I always remember the words of Infosys Narayana Murthy ‘ Power of money is power of charity’. As he said, We have to earn to give it away.
Our invitation to you in this Charity Week
We invite you to hear your call. Join the charity week with the most loving heart and do some charity in any organization of your choice. Make this week special make it an integral part of your life. It’s time to think beyond numbers, financial products and calculations. We want you to fix your life’s calculation first and the rest will happen on its own. In this week be of service to people around you, fill yourselves with a lot of love and help everyone around you. Do something special for all those who are serving you and you never ever noticed them! Be it your liftmen, your security guard, your office person, your helper at home, or just help some poor people
Fill the comments section with heartfelt experiences and sharing, let the goodness in you come out. Let’s master the art of giving. This kind of charity may have never happened on blog, lets create a world that works for everyone, let’s contribute and be of service to everyone around us. Make this charity week a piece of your heart and enjoy the wealth called ‘LIFE’.
Here is how you can make a start, following are few organisations where you can make a donation
- http://www.smilefoundationindia.org/register.asp
- http://www.akshayapatra.org/
- http://support.savethechildren.in/
- http://www.giveindia.org/
Rs 1,75,000 already donated by 32 readers
We are close to thousands of readers on this blog , even if 10,000 people donate even Rs 500 , it would be close to Rs 50 lacs worth of help to someone. Think about it – do your bit .
Here is the form where you can submit your donation details so that we can measure as a blog how much money we donated and what difference we created in the world. If you are already doing charity share your experience in the comments section. Only the money that you will be donating in this week will be counted.
Great Article.. Your articles come with innovative stuff. I love to read it. Today I was reading one article of you “How I wrote my 1st book in 500 days – Here is the complete story” From that story, I found one tag “emotional side of money”. And I reach to this article.
I want to share our story. Me and my husband are active in charity work but not on regular basis. Few days back, We have decided to donate 10% of monthly income to charity. Initially We feel its a tough decision to contribute 10% amount for charity as we will save less by contributing big chunk to charity. But gradually we understood the importance of giving and emotional bonding with money.
Later on, We decided that The day salary will be credit our account. We will withdraw 10% of take home salary for donation and keep it aside. We planned our donation ( Where we will donate) just like our monthly expense-investment planning in excel every month. We donate in different way like Akshay patra, Food to street people, give cash money to needy people, distribute biscuits among children, old age home etc.
Sometime, We also donate raw potato, sugar packet, wheat flour packet, rice packet, oil packet on road side. This are some essential item for daily use.
We feels abundance money this days after starting this charity work.
Great to know all this Amrita.. Its really amazing to know that in todays world you are able to do all this when people dont even donate Rs 10 out of their pocket . Really a proud thing !
Because of God grace this work can be done. We are blessed with baby boy six months back. Relatives and friends gave gifts or money in form of blessing. Those blessing received in form of cash, We contributed 10% of money to UNICEF in name of our child. We have filed that donation receipt. So We can show receipt to our child after few years and make him understand the importance of tithing and giving.
We also open one separate account for blessings money. In India, During festival elders give cash money in form of blessings. Most of the time, We spend it. Since 2012, We have decided to keep those cash money in separate saving account. We make FD ( KHUSIYO KI DEPOSIT ) of those money in year end. So after few years We can see a abundance of money in terms of blessings. Till now, We make FD for nearly Rs 30,000 INR(never imagine this much cash my elders are giving to me in last 3 years). I am feeling so happy to look at that account because its blessings money & we have preserved it. Now I can realize, how much money I spend it in past years. Its a different way of saving and investment 🙂
Thanks for your comment Amrita
Great one Manish. I donated to akshayapatra last year, donating to rangde.org this time.
Wonderful 🙂 .. you are blessed !
Hi Manish
Thanks for such a wonder full article. My grandfather used to donate a lot. And he had a habit of giving the items to grandchildren i.e us to give it to others..be it winter cloth, Big bhandaras(free meal to thousand of peoples), temple fest..etc. Even we have one free water tank (Payau we call it in north india) running continuously from last 40 years , when I was young he always asked us to sit there for hours and server water to people. I used to think why to work hard for other people, why he gave so much for free to others. But as I grown up I realized that what it means giving others. And so I understood the how the act of doing charity deeply rooted in our culture.
Other than smaller things I regularly pay 1100 per month to Patanjali Yogpeeth foundation as I believe they are doing excellent work for the community in every sphere of life be health, pure food, preserving our heritage, fighting for poor people..etc
Hey thats a very nice thing to hear ! … keep it up !
Hi Manish,
This is your Golden stroke!
Your article will help lots of people who doubt genuinity or efficiency of these NGOs (I used to doubt as well but made contributions). Have an experience to share.
I was always in search of NGO where I could see my contributions frutifying rather than commit online to some NGO and forget about it.
Came across an news article recently (Jul 1, 2012) which reported a mother abandoning a 2 months old baby girl at Dadar Station. Government Railway Police (GRP) officers took her to BAL ASHA TRUST at Mahalaxmi station.
Visited (along with my spouse & tiny toddler) this place (located in the campus of King George Memorial hospital, 022-4944090) in the following week and was pleasantly surprised to see many (unfortunately) less than 1 yr babies being taken care of in very hygienic condition. Visitors are not allowed to enter the huge room where these babies were nicely kept in baby beds but can see them from a distance. They also had more than 40 children of various age groups.
We gifted lots of new & old baby clothes to them and were overjoyed with this NGO’s discovery. The manager Mr.Sunil Kumar Arora appreciated and was surprised with our stint.
He made one interesting comment… “Sir, donation is always good but yours is special as you cared to find out small NGOs like us who do not enjoy visibility nor afford to spend on marketing like others”
Thank You
Thanks for sharing that case , its really great to see your actions and good to hear you are able to see how the amount you gave was utilized.
Yes, it is important to create a thought and motivate to action. Our ancient mythological story of ‘Ramsetu’ is classic example!
Manish,
I appreciate that you are not just focussed on Money in very narrow sense. You have broader view and insight. If those who have help to those who haven’t, the wide gap that exists in our society can really lessen to some extent.
I am happy helping people in need in our vicinity and relations and to greater social cause. I owe it to my parents. They have successfully inculcated this in us. Coincidently I donated Rs 15000 this month to ‘vanchit Vikas’ an NGO in Pune helping underpreviledged.
http://vanchitvikas.egoonies.com/
Other such trustworthy organizations are
http://www.anandwan.in
http://www.maharshikarve.ac.in/- Education for Women
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. The gap is huge and with more such efforts we will see that more and more people contribute. The only thing that will pull more people is through love. Some people take time to experience beauty of life is in giving.
nandish
Some people take time to REALISE beauty of life is in giving.
Greetings from Akshaya Patra!
A motivating article indeed, Manish! We really appreciate individuals who take a moment in their busy life to contribute to causes that really matters. We thank you for mentioning us in your charity week Section. It has brought to us new members and donations.
We cheer your efforts and wish you all the very best in all your endeavors!!
We also want to thank all individuals who donated for the cause and have helped in killing classroom hunger for many children.
Akshaya Patra reaches 1.3 million children every day with hot nutritious meal. It’s each kitchen cook meals for thousands of children every day in the most hygienic condition and does it with precision. Akshaya Patra has never disappointed a child waiting for food from its blue bus until today. We aspire to reach 5 million children by 2020 and for this all the support matters and every contribution counts!
Join us on Facebook(https://www.facebook.com/TheAkshayapatraFoundation)
and Linkedin(http://www.linkedin.com/company/349797?trk=tyah).
Warm Regards,
The Akshaya Patra Team,
Bangalore.
Thakns for your appreciation , It was our small effort to do something about it 🙂 . Really good to see a comment from your foundation !
Thanks for sharing your views. We as a team are really happy to know new members joining akshaya patra….We really have no words for the commendable work done by your organization. We would love to do more and more initiatives like this so that each person experiences REAL power of giving.
Thank you for sharing your vision with us. Your organization is source of strength to each one of us.
Warm regards
Our entire team
manish/nandish
Rather than donating money to NGO, I prefer to look around our close surroundings and help the needy people.
For example, I help my house maid to buy books, uniforms & other school stuffs for her daughter.
I’m helping one of our relative’s son to study by bearing all his college expenses including fee, books, food and shelter.
We have a small group in our office ,we contribute some amount monthly and use it for social cause.
Lets share something to the world, after all we get all the things from this world only..
Yea .. whatever works we can do , charity to NGO is just one option, what you are doing it much better I think !
Hi Manish,
Nice post and after going through this article, i contributed to Akshayapatra Foundation for children food 675 rs per year for one kid. Hope many people will be inspired by your articles.
Cheers
Sravi
Good to see what you did .. appreciate it !
I find that the sites for Donations are said to have secured 3 D channel but my transactions are getting rejected by concerned Banks. The transactions in respect of all other transactions do get successful. Is there some bug / problem on these sites like giveindia / smilefoumdationinindia, etc?
No idea , but it should not happen like that , many people do it !
Anyway, I could finally send donation by credit card instead of Debit card. I appreciate your contribution to Funds through us and encouragement to us. You are indeed doing yeoman job is service to Money i.e. Laxmi Devi as well Saraswati Devi.
Great to see this article! And also, to know that there are so many of us who are contributing and making a significant impact. I am not very regular visitor on this site. But this truly strikes a chord! More so, because this very weekend, we have planned for a visit to the orphanage on the ocassion of my husband’s birthday and spend time with the kids, playing games with them, eating with them and giving them gifts!
If you can give your time along with your money to the lesser fortunate, it can make a remarkable contribution. And there are several methods of giving your time!
Thanks for sharing Alby. We would like you to visit our blog more regularly. Lets all learn and grow together
nandish
Good to hear that you have been doing your bit ! .. congratulations !
Dear Manish Ji
again good deeds from JI.com
i Have Contributed Rs 500/- to Smile Foundation & Next Contribution Will 500/- For Save the Children Foundation
Thanks
Anand Singh (Anurag BHandari)
Good to hear about your contribution ! Thanks
Did my small part , donated Rs.. 675 to feed one child for a year to akshayapatra.org also planning to donate a 100o rs to Shivraj Vidyamandir School as our company is planning to raise for few underprivileged children as they are planning to give uniform to the Shivraj Vidyamandir School ,which is located nearby to pune.
Thanks Jagoinvestor team , for making us remind that we have to do something for orthers to 🙂
Oprah Winfrey has rightly said :
I don’t think you ever stop giving. I really don’t. I think it’s an on-going process. And it’s not just about being able to write a check. It’s being able to touch somebody’s life.
Regards
Prashant
Prashant
Good to hear that you have contributed something for a child 🙂 . this 675 will really strengthen your relationship with money 🙂 , congratulations !
Hi
This is a very touching article wherein we are encouraged to give back the society a small bit for what we are today.
I used to donate the cloths, toys and to helpage india and CRY. Though not a regular donor I ensure that I contribute somewhere sometime whever possible. I also read the story of akshaypatra and has donated for sponsoring food. However after reading above comments from other friends, I am encouraged to do more. Thanks Manish for a different article wherein we surf this website normally with intention for getting more money through investments than giving it.
Deepa
Thats a honest confession .. Good to read what you are doing. Doing something is much better than doing nothing, atleast you are much ahead of others.
Manish I am donating myself here for children education, clothes, and by money often.I celebrate my every birthday in Oldage home by donating food to them. I am doing some offers which ever possible by me within my limits.
Dear Friends,
Am donating small amount every month to operation blessing for medical camps, food & medicine for elderly person etc. Operation Blessing is touching the lives of millions of people every year through efficient, impacting projects all over the globe. Its a great opportunities to be a blessing to so many people in real need;
Operation Blessing meets the needs of people after disasters, not by giving them whatever they happen to have on their trucks, but by listening to what the people need and then providing it. And that’s when miracles begin to happen.
Website is: http://obindia.org/catalog/
Also donated 3 cartons of clothes and 2 cartons of toys & footwear to Goonj! Friends, our wardrobes are filled with clothes we don’t wear anymore. Find these unused items, wash them, iron them, bring them to GOONJ, an NGO dedicated to mobilizing clothing and changing lives in more ways than one. (You can also contribute warm clothing (woolens/jackets/wind cheaters), footwear and toys. )
Website is: http://goonj.org/
Saikat
Good to hear about your contribution .. really touched by it 🙂
Thats really good to hear . Keep it up !
Great message Manish and Nandish. I am very glad to see this article, this is the second blog in personal finance which has encouraged charity. No matter however money one makes, saves, invests or spends on himself, there’s no greater deed than being selfless and helping someone in need.
For me, this is not a one time affair. I donate a small portion of my take home every month to either one of the kids in need in my hometown (a small town) for educational needs or Child Rights and You CRY, again kid’s education. Though I prefer personal donations than to organization because I know the money is going directly to the people. During festive seasons, I have few relatives who are going through financial difficulty to make their ends meet, and I support their family with clothes and stuff. I am thankful to my parents that they taught us about charity and the difference it makes in someone’s life.
One small message from the movie Evan Almighty, remember ARK. One Act of Random Kindness at a time, it does not take much but it makes a big difference.
Thanks for sharing. Good to know about ARK and all the difference that you are making in the world. You are really building a world that works for everyone
nandish
Great initiative Manish/Nandish,
Goes to show how passionate you guys are about your work. Good to see an interesting initiative such as this being taken up. All the best.
Ronak
Thanks Ronak 🙂
I have been donating money for AkshayPatra (thanks to Subra at http://www.subramoney.com). More important is that money should not be only part of donation. Myself and my family often donate clothes, food, books to poor people.
Cheers
Atul
Atul
Good to hear that you are also donating it to AkshayPatra !
Good to hear about your donation part .. great !
Hi Nandish/Manish,
Great article as always. You inspired me to donate 6K for ‘Enroll children into government school and also provide educational support to help them stay in school’ Scheme. Could be a little amount but I will try to donate as long as I can.
Thanks,
Siva Mohan
Siva Mohan
Thats great.. how did you feel after doing that ? I am sure you must have felt like you got something when you gave ! ..
I am donating regularly (on a per month basis) through ECS since 2008 to ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION.After Every 3 years I increase the donation amount. Also AOL gives 80-G Donation receipt which I use during my TAX-FILING.
Since APRIL-2012 I have also started donating through ECS to AKSHAY-PATRA, where they feed & educate needy children they too give 80-G. I have also started donating to TTD (Tirupati-Tirumalai -Devastams) e-hundi, online (credit card) after making my online account on their website(requires an authentic proof of ID). The websites of my donation receivers are as follows:
(1.) ART OF LIVING:http://www.dsyindia.org/donate.aspx
(2.) AKSHAY-PATRA: http://www.akshayapatra.org/
(3.)TTD: http://www.ttdsevaonline.com/ehundi/ehundi.aspx
Once again an excellent article and regarding doing charity I would like to quote a knowledge point from Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankarji : “A small part of your savings when donated for society brings abundance”.
Krantivir Rajput .. Good to hear this. Akshay patra is really changing the way children have food in schools , I had seen a documentary in which they showed how they cook and about the quality of food, it was really amazing !
Yes Manish, even NR Narayana Murty is regular donor of Akshay Patra.
Superb article!
I have been donating Rs.300 to UNICEF children’s fund every month. I was shocked to hear this would help 120 newborns for polio medication. And Rs.1200 would take care of a child’s expenses. Yes, our petty amounts make HUGE differences somewhere!
It also has other donation campaigns, where u can donate any amount you wish to give every month. I am increasing it sooner 🙂
In my hometown (Siruguppa) in Bellary district, Karnataka, I know a doctor who goes to villages teaching Dos and Donts, giving them free medication, helping them on monthly visits. I wish to donate some amount to his foundation soon.
Thanks.
Thats really great to know .. You are saving a lot of children life .. I know its a great feeling 🙂 . Keep it up ..
Hello,
As in investment – a long term charity can also bear fruits much bigger than expected. I and some of my friends sponsor needy children’s education through charity – youth for seva. As we keep getting the report cards and hand written letters from children – we are mostly sure that funds are not misused.
A good initiative. Givers gain.
Ashish
so inspiring ashish, thanks for sharing
You are talking about only men and women.Why not street dogs and cats please?
My wife and I do feed stray dogs and take care of cats regularly since several years. My wife does voluntary work in a Govt Hospital since 40 years.
Yes even that would be same as Charity and thats something very less people do , hats off to you guys !
Nice article . In my experience, it is good to help the needy among your relatives, children of house hold staff, office staff etc . In a small way , I finance education of one or two children from among the known people and meet all their expenses towatds books and fees till they graduate . On navarathri week, I give dress material
To nine poor girls . I am retired but continue the tradition for the last thirty years in my own humble way . I see them grow, graduate and I am happy .
Ramadoss S
Sir thanks for sharing your experience….truly inspiring. You are bringing light in people’s life.
When you give without any expectation you get more. We experienced this when Rs 20400 has passed through our hands to reach Maaillu which takes care of 180 children who don’t have parents(www.maaillu.org) It is foolishness to feel that it is a donation- God gave us that great opportunity. We earned that money by doing another good work of helping others with the only intention of passing it to Maa illu. That extra work gave us real satisfaction than the giving, (giving became our duty). I feel that writing about charity is also the duty of you. I always remember the words of Infosys Narayana Murthy ‘ Power of money is power of charity’. As he said, We have to earn to give it away.
When you give without any expectation you get more- This is so powerful. Thanks for sharing your experience. Do help us reach this message to more and more people
Very good initiative. I support missionaries of charity. I am against the so called big charity organizations who spend a lot of money on advertising when they could make good use of it.
Amazing to know about “make a difference” part of you. keep doing the good work
hi manish, may I suggest another option. Look for people in your family, friends or co-workers who might need your assistance. surely u will find someone who are suffering in silence. we should help them also. we as a family are pooling our ramadhan charity Zakat and giving it all to some one (irrespective of religion) who will improve thier life for the better
Good suggestion. You are right the help needs to reach many.
Nice article Nandish…
Recently, we had been to Shimoga (a place near Bangalore) to a temple. There are around 23 boys who are sponsored by the temple committee. When we saw the boys, we went ahead and donated money so that these boys get good food to eat atleast once in a year.
We are also planning to donate some money in the next year for the same cause.
Also, recently, we donated around Rs. 17,000 to a boy who wanted to complete his education.
We donate atleast Rs. 20,000 yearly. Its our routine 🙂
Aparna this is so very inspiring….it is said the way you live your life is your legacy and I am clear you are going to leave an inspiring legacy for your next generation…thanks for sharing your wonderful experience with us
Great Job !!
Worth reading and inspires to learn art of giving…
In this materialistic world, this is a good initiative.
All the best !!
– Nishi
amazing to know your view nishi.
Hey Nandish,
My hearty congrats for this initiation.
It was a coincident or what i don’t know but last Sunday afternoon I got a call form this trust called relief India. They help people in need, specially children from poor family. They had one emergency case where a child needed to get operated immediately on next day. They needed some lakhs of money for operation and were short by some thousands.
In the beginning I was annoyed by receiving this call as it was Sunday afternoon and I was helping my wife in cooking !!! the caller was a student who had given his Sunday for helping this trust. I was quite skeptical as I was talking to a student and was not sure of his credibility. Then he gave me the website details and I thought of giving it a chance. I checked the site and other details and found it quite genuine and decided to donate something. To be frank I felt the amount was quite high and I decided to give half of it and told the person to call me again if he doesn’t get the donor for remaining amount.
Now when I did the the online donation, the transaction error appeared at the end so I felt my heart sink(started calling words for my net connection !!!). I decided to give it one more chance and donated the same amount again and got an error again !!! Now I decided to check my bank balance to make sure what exactly happened.
The amount got deducted !!! twice !!!! I didn’t understand that I should be happy or sad as it was not what I really wanted to give. But then the exact feeling of happiness delight came to me and I understood that this might not make a very big difference to my life but one life will be saved because of this !!! God wanted it that way … Life acts strange few times !!!
This is just a coincident that your blog came up with this article and I felt like sharing this with all our friends.
Website is:- http://www.reliefindiatrust.org/
Thanks and Regards,
Pratik Desai
Pratik this is so inspiring . Thanks for sharing and for saving a life. This gives such a deep fulfillment.
Hi Manish
Great article! I would like to remind a very good tradition in Muslim tradition, of donating a fixed amount to good causes.
I follow this simple rule. To avoid missing out, I have fixed 3% of my take home pay, and activated a monthly ECS to my favourite charity…and money gets deducted at start of the month…while it looks quite process oriented, its to ensure that the inner demons of my mind don’t take me away from giving back to the community, from which what I am today.
Also, there is a very mistaken assumption among people, that charity is only for the wealthy. NO – if you are without a job, or running a huge debt – then charity assumes all the more importance as it completely shifts the focus of mind – you are telling the consciousness that I have so much, that I am giving…and that’s what becomes your reality in sometime:)…and it does not depend on how much you contribute..the genuine desire and intention is what matters!
Good to know your thoughts abhinav. You are operating from abundance which is good
nandish
Nandish/Manish,
Very good article.
I can echo in your trueness in changing this world not only financially but also a better world to live in.
I have donated the amount right away to Smile foundation and have secured the education of 1 child.
I strongly believe in Stephen r covey quote “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”
Only education uplifting can get some change in this country.So urge all to please grab this occasion.
Thanks for the article and keep up the good work.
Suhas this is so inspiring….You are a true giver as you took action…good givers are always good receivers. have an awesome life.
I am extremely happy to hear about this initiative.
And guess what, the happiness you get by helping others, is something money cant buy.
–George
George we are happy to know that you are happy with this step. nandish
I am really surprised to see this article, but i am happy that you wrote this.
These days, we are so attached to the money that we hardly care about people in need.
Couple of years back, one day i went to a small railway station near my house in Bangalore for a morning walk. (It has a long and nice platform 😉 ). After a while i sat on a bench, a train came. I was observing the people and its amazing that these people get up so early in the morning , travel so long to do their jobs & I don’t think they get huge salaries. At that moment i realised how lucky i am, that i have a good job, i can earn money by working on a computer. I also realised that i am in a position to help many people in need.
Since then i started very small donations to couple of organizations, and also i came across a micro finance NGO – http://www.rangde.org where we can lend the money to poor people who wanna do small business. I am a regular investor in Rangde.
Thanks again for the article 🙂
You have a heart of GOLD. Your sharing inspired me
nandish
Sam & Nandish – It was truly an inspiring article to read on a finance blog. Last week i read your article on ‘knowledge domain’ vs ‘action domain’ and i was thinking about some of the actions i had done and not done. This article opened my eyes to completely new world of giving and I am glad to say that i did an action today. I did my first social investment through rangde.org. Thanks to Sam for showing me a good place to start and Manish to inspire me. I hope to take this forward in a greater way.
Thanks & wish you more success !!
Thanks Nandish.
Vinod, I am glad that you joined rangde. Its a great way to help others by lending when you are not in a position to donate much. Pass it on to your friends also 🙂
vinod amazing to know what you are creating on this blog. all the best
nandish
Great Article Nandish/Manish!
Sanjay you have been a great client and a friend. Thanks for making a contribution today