How to Organize Donation Expenses

"I am going to present a topic on budget. Again, with the help of Expert Village, hopefully we will be able to help people and assist people in terms of developing a budget. In this clip, we are going to talk about something that I love to talk about in the budget, which is charities and donations. And again, this is something that hopefully is one of the positive things that impacts your budget. And when we talk about charities and donations we are talking about what you are giving back to the community through your church, through tithing, organizations that you're associated with and the non-profits that you might be affiliated with. For example, we do a lot with the Juvenile Diabetes Organization. Actually, recently they just had a walk and we participated in that. We always raise money for that organization. So this is an item that you need to take a look at and most times, your churches will send you, at the end of the year, a summary of your tithes and donations. Organizations normally will send you, if you request, will send you a listing of your contributions and then non-profits will also be kind and give you a receipt as well. So anytime you are giving to charities and donations, try to keep in mind that those are items that you need to include in the budget. And when you are developing a budget make sure that you have a line item for that because I always think it's good to put that in there and to put an associated dollar amount with that for charities and donations. So again, always kind of look at what you're giving and keep receipts if you can. Just kind of make a mental note in terms of what you are giving on a monthly basis or annually and include that in the budget. Because again, the whole process of the budget is determining where your expenses are going or where your dollars are going. And again, charities and donations are an important part of your life, therefore it should be included into your budget. Again, look at your church, look at organizations, look at non-profits that you might be associated with and then look at that. For example, my daughter is in the girls scouts. We do a lot with girl scouts as far as donations and so forth, in addition to other organizations I am involved in. So look at those things and also include those items in your monthly budget."