What Are You Thankful For? What Have You Given This Year?

This is the holiday season, and it is a time to be thankful and a time for giving.

I am thankful for my biological family: my brothers, and my nieces and nephews. I am also very thankful for my ISBA family. Forty years of going to meetings, taking trips, enjoying dinners, and just hanging out have given me very warm feelings for my ISBA family. They are kind, loving, and very smart people. Socializing with the ISBA lawyers and their spouses gives it an added family feeling. They are all my friends.

I am also thankful for my good health and ability to work at and in a profession that I love. Think about all of the pluses that the people in the ISBA have given you and be thankful.

Tis the season to open your hearts and wallets to and for others. The ISBA Foundation does so much for so many. It helps lawyers and their families with financial assistance, contributes to programs that provide help and education to lawyers and their families, and many more charitable events. Hopefully everybody that is reading this is a Foundation member. If you aren’t, do so now. It’s $100 per year (that’s two nice dinners or 10 drinks per year).

There are other things you can do for charity if giving money is not in your budget. Run a marathon or half-marathon. Put the ISBA Foundation in your will (you will never miss it).

Did you also know that there are some charities that you can donate to where more than 95% of what you donate actually goes for the purpose intended? For example:

• The Salvation Army – Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a small salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2,000,000,000 organization. 96% of donated dollars go to the cause.

• Make a Wish: For Children’s Last Wishes – 100% goes to funding trips or special wishes for a dying child.

• St. Jude Research Hospital – 100% goes towards funding and helping children with cancer who have no insurance and cannot afford to pay.

• Ronald McDonald Houses – All monies go to running the houses for parents who have critically ill children in the hospital. 100% goes to housing and feeding the families.

• Lions Club International – 100% of donations go to help the blind, buy hearing aids, and support medical missions around the world. Their latest undertaking is measles vaccines for only $1 per shot.

Give your wealth and give yourself this Holiday Season. It will come back to you 10-fold. And be thankful for what you have and don’t bemoan what you don’t have. ■