Post-Grad Charity

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Post-grad life can sometimes seem as if you’re living in limbo. If you’re not one of the 69.4 percent of lucky young adults aged 20 to 24 to be employed, making ends meet can be seemingly impossible.

Rent, groceries, bills, costs of having a social life, gas/car insurance if you’re a driver, and student loan payments add up quickly, and can be discouraging of implementing charitable practices in your life.

In fact, the average college graduate will leave their college or university with a degree of their earning, as well an more than $30,000 in student loan debt. So it’s not surprise that the resourceful post-grads of today are finding ways to solve their debt crisis–and for anyone who’s had to pay back student loans or accept weekly calls from Sallie Mae, it is most definitely a crisis.

Recent graduates have even figured out a way to make these payments meaningful and charitable. What are they?

Sponsor Change

This organization has three main goals: to help young adults surge some high-impact non-profit volunteer work into their resumes, increase civic engagement, and decrease the student loan burden. By creating a Change Agent profile, you can propose community service projects and ask for sponsorship. Each hour of charitable work earns Change Agents somewhere between $10 and $20 and they go directly to your student loan payments so sponsors don’t have to worry about you actually spending it on a wild night out.

Career-Specific Repayment Opportunities

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program | Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program | National Health Service Corps

Depending on what field you enter, there are a number of programs offering reprieves on any remaining federal student-loan balances after a certain number of years in public service, teaching in underprivileged schools and communities, or providing healthcare in underserved areas. And these are just three potential opportunities to give where it’s needed, and to shave off some of that debt.

ZeroBound

Utilizing a unique crowdfunding platform, ZeroBound aims to connect volunteers with donors to create a community of charitable young adults. By creating a profile, users are able to detail the volunteer projects they are involved with, as well as a financial goal for donations. If their campaign is a success, the earnings of their crowdfunding campaign is applied directly towards their student loan debt.

“We hope to use the trend of crowdfunding to not only help a generation pay off their debt, but also increase volunteerism among an age bracket that actually volunteers the least,” said Kelli Space, ZeroBound co-founder.

3 Undesirable Behaviors from Charitable Donors

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gift-gaetano saccoGiving to a good cause is an action that should originate from the heart. In some cases, donors may expect something in return for their act of kindness. Donors that invest larger amounts of money and resources are typically known for later exhibiting not so favorable behaviors.

Gifts

Donors with a lot of money may want to get rid of some personal items which they find valuable. However, the item they are looking to give away may not be beneficial to the cause. An organization that receives an expensive but unuseful gift may have to allocate unplanned time to properly dispose of it in a way that may turn out to be beneficial. It then turns out that the gifter caused a great distraction that could’ve been avoided had that person given a useful gift.

Item Donations

Similar to the undesired gifts, providing donations that don’t help the cause, especially in times of emergency, can be troublesome. A silly example may include an infant crying for milk but being given a lollipop. The lollipop is not helpful in that situation. In fact, the infant can’t partake in it at all. Give items that people need and can use in hard times.

Documentation

It is common for a donor to expect something like a receipt after giving a cash contribution. However, there are times where people who donate want an unreasonable form of documentation. One woman gave $2,000 and expected a 20 page report detailing the use of the money. At the end of the day, the labor to write the report most likely costed more than the donation itself. This situation could have been remedied if the donor found out the organization’s reporting method before agreeing to give the money. The giver and receiver could have made a point to be on the same page before the relationship continued to move forward.

Other downfalls of charitable donors may include too closely overseeing the decisions of the organization and expecting personal errands in return. These and more are counterproductive behaviors that donors can exhibit. For more information, visit the Wall Street Journal here.