With so many worthy causes clamoring for your attention — or even just a spot in your email inbox — it can be hard to know the best place to put your charity dollars. One piece of guidance from Laura Vanderkam, author of the best-selling “What the Most Successful People Do” e-book series: “Give locally. It’ll improve your community or neighborhood at the same time that it improves your well-being.” (She’s not kidding about that last part: Studies have shown that giving money away makes people happier than spending it on themselves.) When we asked experts from Tumml, VolunteerMatch, Fundrise and Smallknot — sites dedicated to local giving and investing — to suggest the best sites to find worthy causes in your community, they were delighted to help.Julie Lein, who started a nonprofit with Clara Brenner to help find funding for startups meant to improve city living, knows first-hand the power of people donating locally: “At Tumml — an urban ventures accelerator — we're very aware that $1,000 can make a real difference in your local community,” she says.Here are eight sites to consider for your next donation:1. DonorsChoose.org: With public school budgets tight, teachers post here requesting a little help. “It allows people to donate to support classroom projects at public schools in their communities,” says Lein. Most projects are a few hundred dollars, meaning your largesse could easily buy a color printer, those microscope slides and cover that science museum field trip.Read the full story on DailyWorth.
