Boston Marathon charities officially open their application processes on Monday, Sept. 29. The full list will be available on the BAA website. (There are actually a few that have already opened a bit early.) There are lots of different options to choose from. Last year there were 176. According to the BAA's press release this past June, the combined total of donations raised across all of these charities was a whopping $50.4 million. And since the charity program started nearly 40 years ago, donations to the myriad charities have raised an astonishing $600 million+.
Whether you are directly fundraising, on a charity team or not, please donate to charity. Choose one that speaks to you and what you care about. If you work for an employer that does some form of company match, investigate how you can take advantage of that to augment the impact of your donations even further. While $5 or $10 might not break the bank for you, when multiplied by a large number of donors, those dollars add up to serious funds that can have a profound impact for the better.
For those with children, encourage them to donate to a charity, too. At some point when I was in elementary school, I saw my neurologist on the MDA Telethon every year. From the first time I saw him on the program, I donated, even though at such a young age it was a very small amount. But it got me in the habit, not just of donating to that one charity (which I've done likely for well over 40 years, now), but it fostered the willingness to donate to others. At different points over the years, I have also been part of various fundraising efforts.
Yet again, I will be going beyond "simply" donating to a charity to actively fundraising for it. More details to come in the near future.
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