Shortly before Christmas, many people want to support charitable organizations – at no other time of the year are more donations than in Advent. In times of major crises, the willingness to donate is always particularly high in Germany – and 2021 had two crises in its luggage with the corona pandemic and the flood disaster in the summer. In the first nine months of this year, 3.8 billion euros were received by charitable organizations or churches, the highest value since the GfK survey for the German Donation Council began in 2005. But precisely because many people were hard hit economically by the corona pandemic, not all of them can donate as much money as they might like. Nevertheless, there are ways to support social causes, even (almost) without money. Six ideas for doing good when your own till is empty.
1. Donate old Deutschmarks
The introduction of euro cash will soon be the 20th anniversary, but Germans still have a lot of D-Mark amounts lying around at home. According to estimates by the Bundesbank, banknotes to the value of almost 5.8 billion marks and coins to the value of 6.6 billion marks have not yet been exchanged. That is the equivalent of more than six billion euros. They have not lost their value, but can still be exchanged at the Bundesbank – or donated, for example to Welthungerhilfe. If you are looking for your remaining inventory, you can simply put it informally in an envelope and send it to the organization by post. Incidentally, this works not only with D-Mark, but also with currencies that may have been left over from one or the other vacation. Donors only have to pay the postage for shipping.
2. Donate old glasses
People who wear glasses usually come across an impressive collection of discarded models in the course of their lives. Changed eyesight, changed taste, what is no longer worn often ends up in the “you-never-know-whether-you-can-use-it-again” drawer. But instead you could leave your old models to organizations to process them and distribute them in countries where vision aids are difficult to get – and where a lack of glasses can be the reason why someone cannot look after themselves. The action “Eyewear Worldwide” cooperates with the German Catholic Association for the Blind and accepts discarded glasses by post, but you can also simply buy them in a branch the optician chain Apollo.
3. Donations while spending money
Shopping at Amazon is quite controversial, after all, there are always reports about working conditions at the company that are worthy of criticism. But if you order there anyway, you can use the “Amazon Smile” function to donate at least a cent amount to a non-profit organization with every purchase, which you can choose yourself in the settings. Amazon donates the amount; there are no costs for customers. Once with an existing Amazon account for the smile function registered, everything goes automatically.
4. Donate old cell phones
The German digital association Bitkom estimates that Germans store more than 200 million old cell phones, and more than half of consumers have at least three of them in their closets or drawers. Unused capital – some would still be functional, but broken devices are also interesting because of the raw materials they contain. The environmental protection organization Nabu therefore collects cell phones, laptops and tablets with the aim of reprocessing them – if that is not possible, they will be professionally recycled and the raw materials saved. If you want to get rid of your old devices, you can simply send them by post, on the Nabu website a return form can be downloaded. Works on a similar principle Cell phones for the environment, an action by Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
5. Sort out clothes and books
The ability to mercilessly declutter is not given to everyone. Those who part with clothes that are never worn again and books that are never read again are rewarded twice: with more space in the closets and a small or large proceeds that can then be donated. Vendors like Momox, Rebuy or Zoxs buy old books, sometimes for cents, sometimes for good money. You can find out the proceeds when you scan the barcode in the app, and shipping is free. When it comes to clothing, Momox Fashion is practical for everyone who wants to save the hassle of a retail sale: Here you simply enter the type of clothing item and the brand and receive a price proposal. Shpock and Vinted also turn old clothes into money that can be passed on.
6. Donate time
Many organizations need a helping hand – regularly, but sometimes only once. Electronic databases provide an overview of requirements in almost every region. One of the largest national databases is the the action man, here you can see where help is needed after entering your own zip code.