I just spent the last 20 minutes typing up a post on an initiative about giving to children around the world that caught my attention. Who isn’t attracted to that, right? It sounded like a fun thing to get my own kids involved in.

While I was typing the post, I was navigating their website, finding links that would be helpful to you, and getting more background information. Some things  jumped out at me that bothered me – like was the collection drive considering culturally relevant items? Hmmm…I wasn’t sure because I needed to find out more about who the ‘target’ populations were. And then I read further – and between the lines – and realized that my values were not aligned with the ones of this organization.

This group is well-meaning and I’m sure for many, their philosophies are appropriate. But not for me.

So, now I’m writing a post to ask YOU to do some research into the charitable endeavours that catch YOUR eye; take an additional step or two and make sure you are putting your energy and resources into initiatives that propogate what YOU value.

Be authentic in everything you do. After all, giving to charity is like putting a piece of yourself out there. It’s furthering your legacy, it’s leaving your mark.

Make sure that mark is really who you are.