The last of the baby steps from the Dave Ramsey class we took is to build wealth and give.  We are far, far away from baby step seven.  But we learned to build donating into our monthly budget.  We don't have a lot at this point to donate, but I like that it is introduced early enough into the steps to make it a habit.  I decided that we would pick a charity a month to donate our money to.

The charity we donated to in January was Room to Read.  Room to Read believes in literacy and gender equality in education in Asia and Africa.  I was originally going to donate to the Central Asia Institute (Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson), but remembered reading something about the way their funds were being mismanaged.  After a bit of research I found this wonderful website Charity Navigator.  There was indeed an alert of the CAI charity and the Room to Read charity was a 4-star charity.  I believe strongly in teaching children to read and the impact of educating girls is huge so this was a no brainer.

Our February donation went to Corrine's school.  She goes to a non profit cooperative preschool.  All parents have to volunteer to be on a committee plus we have to aide in the classroom once a month.  Their big yearly fundraiser is coming up.  They use this money for scholarships and classroom equipment.

I've bookmarked a few charities so far on Charity Navigator.  I'm excited about the prospect of being able to donate even a little bit of money once a month to the charity of our choice.  I think we will incorporate the choice into a monthly budget meeting and even use it as an opportunity to teach Corrine about giving.