The season of spreading joy and showing gratitude by giving is an opportunity to show appreciation by participating in charity donations. In the holiday season, charities convince people to donate their money. The debate is whether money or goods should be donated to charities.
Donating goods is far better than donating money to charities. People have a stronger connection with the recipient when goods are donated to them. The chances of getting scammed by charities are less when goods are donated.
Charities are highly active during the holiday season. Charities are convinced that people would be willing to donate during the holidays which incorrectly benefits the charity. Money could also be used for the wrong purposes during the holiday season. The Federal Communications Commission recently advised what you should do before donating to charities, “Check with the National Association of State Charity Officials on whether charities must be registered in your state and, if so, whether the charities contacting you are registered. Verify all phone numbers for charities. If you need to contact a charity by phone or using text-to-donation, check the charity’s official website to see if the number you have is legitimate.”
During the holiday season, some charities only accept clothing items as donations. Even though by donating money, charities could buy clothes themselves. But when something is no longer of use or old clothes are donated it results in a helpful contribution to saving the environment instead of those clothes getting dumped. Goodwill shared what happens when we donate clothes, “When you donate clothing instead, you’re reducing your carbon footprint and doing your part to make the world a healthier place. You might not think you’re making a huge difference, but if everyone donates clothes worthy of a second home, it could substantially reduce the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills.”
Few charities contribute to hunger prevention. Families in their community are supported when food items are donated. Especially during the holiday times, charities try to convince people to set up food drives. An article from Donate Food stated, “Every year, millions of pounds of food go to waste at all stages of the supply chain. The North Texas Food Bank rescues food and gets it to the hungry families in our community.” Therefore, if money is donated instead of food, “charities eventually create short-term dependency which stops other organizations from seeking support from charities around them” (North Texas Food Bank).
In conclusion, the wise choice during the holiday season should be to donate goods or food items over money to save the environment and to show genuine gratitude towards others. After all, the main reason for the holiday season is to put a smile on the recipient’s face.

Work Cited:

Federal Communications Commission. “Federal Communications Commission” https://www.fcc.gov/scam-charities-will-take-your-money-and-run Accessed August 16, 2023.

Goodwill South Texas. “7 Reasons Why You Should Donate Clothing (and Other Items)” https://goodwillsouthtexas.com/7-reasons-why-you-should-donate-clothing-and-other-items/#:~:text=When%20you%20dont%20 clothing%20 instead,ends%20up%20in%20our%20 landfills Accessed October 28, 2022.
North Texas Food Bank. “Food Industry Donations: North Texas Food Bank” https://ntfb.org/food-industry-donations/# Accessed November 16, 2023.