Visit GuideStar.org
Check out the Mom and Dad Move In blog for some interesting insights and observations about caregiving.
An especially great post focuses on a charitable giving issue that affects lots of people. It is especially a problem for seniors who believe in the importance of giving and helping others and give lots of smaller contributions to many organizations. The situation is further complicated when elders give a memorial gift and the organization automatically adds them to the mailing list, thus adding even more solicitations.
Our mailman, Chet, already struggled to deliver the bevy of catalogs my husband and I generated when it was just the two of us.
But after my parents moved in, Chet fled the U.S. Postal Service for a career in nursing. I always imagined his job change was fueled in part by the stacks and stacks of mail my parents received from charity and non-profit groups seeking money.
Giving money to organizations you believe in, groups that have a proven track record and groups that wisely spend your money is admirable.
But we were pummeled with pleas from scores of charities, from the established SPCA to some group that claimed to help armless children paint with their toes. (These groups asked for money on the phone, too, but that’s a whole other story).
So we cut back on giving. Way back. I used the free website guidestar.com to ferret out…
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As Our Parents Age So Do We 