Squidooers are a charitable bunch, no question about it! With the close of the Superheroes Contest, and the terrific response from lensmasters, you can tell that bunches of us care very deeply about our charities and do our best to benefit them!

Now that that contest is over, I’d like to talk about some little known ways that you can use your Squidooing to really help charities, that many folks don’t know about.

First thing- did you know that volunteering for a non-profit helps them at a value of $17 per hour (in 2004 figures- the last time I was responsible to know that)?

Yes, Squidooers, $17 an hour or more for your charity just by donating your time. More even than that, if your charity seeks out funding from someplace like the Kellogg Foundation, your hours working for them at that price increases their chances of getting an in-kind financial donation?

In kind donations are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for nearly EVERY charity you can think of. By accumulating volunteer time, say 2,000 hours, valued at $17 per hour, the charity can seek in-kind money from many organizations to the tune of $34,000 CASH.

Why am I telling you this? Because this is a wonderful way for you to maximize your time spent Squidooing!

Make a page about or for your favorite charity. Then, donate it TO that charity at market rates- I think Tiffany Dow and Lewis Smile are advertising somewhere in the area of $500 per lens? In addition, you may include the value of each lens TO SQUIDOO, which (last time I looked) was about $250. Therefore, your donation would begin with about $750 per lens, that they can use as an in-kind donation.

Doing this is a tax deduction for you, unlike donating directly through Squidoo which you may want.

Here’s where the $17 per hour time comes in. You ALSO donate your time that you spend building and maintaining that (those) lenses for that charity. Just report your time to that charity each month and they’ll do the rest.

If the charity has a paypal account, the payments for those pages should pay directly into the charity. Each month of that payout is additional income for that charity.

Now, if you do NOT itemize your deductions, doing this won’t help you, but the charity will still benefit and they’ll make excellent use of the hours of time you spend on their pages.

If you do itemize your deductions, then this is much preferred as you can then take a deduction on YOUR tax bill.

So, consider ways to maximize your charitable activities with Squidoo. In this economy, they can use every bit of help they can get!

Edit: Yes.  Create a new account with a paypal email for your charity.

Transfer the lens to the new account that pays them directly.

Send a statement to the charity of your donation of the lens(es) and the value, which I estimate at this time to be between $750 & $1000

Thereafter, as you maintain or upgrade the page, keep track of your hours and send a statement of your volunteer hours on a monthly or quarterly statement.  The charity can value those hours at about $17 per hour for purposes of seeking in-kind matching grants.

If you create more lenses for the charity account, wash, rinse and repeat!

The duplicates of the statements you send can be provided to your accountant for your charitable deduction.