The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University says that historically, charitable giving has been recession-proof.

Contributions to American charities have increased during 39 of the past 40 years in today’s dollars, and a change in the tax laws – not the stock market crash – can be blamed for the drop in 1987, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the center. Between 69 and 72 percent of people give routinely, she said.

The article goes on to talk about how some nonprofit organizations are cautiously optimistic about the potential donations for this year’s Christmas season. Believe it or not – we may be hearing about all of the horrible things going on in the auto industry and the banking sector, but Americans are prepared to give to charitable causes nonetheless. This will be an interesting phenomenon to watch – will Americans continue to give their scarce dollars to charitable causes even as the biased media runs around talking about the “horrendous” market conditions? I guess we’ll see.

There are only a few places that I donate my scarce dollars. The first place is my national fraternity’s foundation, which is (of course) helped by the fact that I am a Board member for the foundation. I began donating to some other causes like child cancer research and feeding the homeless, but I felt like my meager dollars were lost in a mess of bigger donations from bigger donors.

I’d like to find a small, locally-based nonprofit organization which is really helping to make a change in society – even if the geographic boundary of that “society” is defined as a single township or a single county in New Jersey, etc. I really think that a small nonprofit like that would be the perfect “project” for a donor to take on in terms of giving away money to help a specific cause. Unfortunately, those types of organizations really don’t exist in Monmouth County or my hometown up in Morris County, so there isn’t any opportunity like that – for now.

As we go out and purchase gifts for our loved ones this year, please remember to give a few dollars to a charitable cause if you can.

For my part, I usually go shopping the day after Thanksgiving in part because of the hysteria of the day and in part because there are great deals to be found if you look for them. One of the places that I go to look for these deals is Black Friday Ads. This is a site that posts the much sought after Black Friday specials and sales for all of the major retailers. A few years ago a consortium of retailers tried to have this site shut down arguing that they were sharing private information. However, the popularity of the site proved that consumers want to know about Black Friday deals well in advance of the wee hours of that Friday morning.

Being led by the shrewd business people that some of them are, a few companies used this critical market research to begin publicizing their Black Friday specials on their websites in advance of the actual holiday. This Christmas season has seen yet another shift in strategy as major companies like Wal-Mart are now offering “Pre-Black Friday” sales. For example, Wal-Mart offered a $298 Compaq laptop computer (only 10 per location) on the morning of November 8th. I think Wal-Mart has the right idea here because they are rewarding those early shoppers with great deals and keeping some of the hysteria in place associated with the Black Friday aura.

At the end of last year’s Christmas season I was sure to pick up a good supply of the “other” things that celebrators need for this time of the year: bows, holiday scented candles, Christmas cards, tags, tape, tissue paper, Christmas boxes, etc. That stuff can actually add up if bought in one pre-Christmas Day purchase! All I need to get this year are the presents to fill the wrapping paper and for which to place the tags. I don’t anticipate going crazy this year for Christmas, but I do have an idea of what I am going to buy for everyone on my list.

Haven’t checked that list twice yet, though…