Start your holiday giving with Halloween

Photo by paul+photos=moody

Guest blogger Elyse Berkowitz is an intern at The Case Foundation and a senior at the University of Maryland.

It’s officially November and as our sugar-highs wane from this past weekend’s festivities, it’s time to start thinking about next year. Instead of pushing this year’s costume to the back of your closet, where it will likely collect dust for the next few years, donate it to someone in need.

You can help out in several ways:

• Contact a school or hospital in your town, or in an underserved community, to donate kids’ costumes. Each fall, families, schools, and hospitals scramble to find costumes for children who can’t afford new costumes. By donating costumes now, you can insure that children in need will have something great next year.
• Plan a costume drive or donate to costume collection groups like Free Costumes for Kids.
• Reach out to your local Ronald McDonald House. At the Ronald McDonald House, your costume (and your kids’) would go to families with children undergoing treatment at local hospitals.
• Give your costume to the Salvation Army or Good Will. A costume donation to the Salvation Army thrift stores would support their rehabilitative programs and help thrift shoppers find next year’s costume or just a new favorite outfit. By donating your costume to Good Will, you would support Good Will’s job training and employment program for people with disadvantages. Donations to these organizations can help those with little means find great items.

So in the spirit of November, and the holiday music that is already playing in coffee shops and stores everywhere, get in the spirit of giving and start giving back early this year.