“We donate a lot of food to rescue organizations.”

Dick Van Patten, Actor

Advantages & Disadvantages of Donating your Birthday

The concept of donating your birthday has become quite popular over the past decade.

Instead of getting gifts from their families and friends, people rather advise their loved ones to donate money to charity organizations.

While there are many advantages related to this concept, it still also implies some downsides.

If you are currently not sure yet whether you want to donate your birthday or not, this article is for you since all pros and cons of donating your birthday are examined in the following.

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Advantages of Donating your Birthday

1. You can do something good for others
2. You can get a cleaner conscience
3. Donating your birthday can make you happy
4. We often already have too many material things we don’t need
5. Donating your birthday is better for our environment
6. You can inspire your family and friends to do the same
7. You can raise awareness on problems through donating your birthday
8. You can grow in character
9. Donating your birthday is easy
10. Online platforms give you additional opportunities to donate your birthday
11. Variety of different charity projects to choose from
12. Your happiness should not depend on material things anyway
13. We all should feel obliged to help the poorest in our global society

You can do something good for others

One advantage of donating your birthday is that you can do for others.

In fact, especially if you were borne in our rich Western world, you will have plenty of opportunities to succeed in life.

However, billions of people around the world will not have these opportunities and have to rely on other people to survive.

Hence, by donating your birthday, you can help to improve the quality of life of numerous people on a global scale.

You can get a cleaner conscience

Many of us know what’s going on around the world.

Yet, few people are really willing to put in the work and to make a change.

In turn, many people suffer from a pretty guilty conscience since they feel the inner obligation to change things.

Thus, if you are one of those people who really want to make a difference but don’t know how, donating your birthday is a first step to get a cleaner conscience.

Donating your birthday can make you happy

In fact, if you are happy with your life and with what you are doing, you will become even happier by supporting other people who need your help right now.

In fact, helping others can be the key to true happiness in the long run and by donating your birthday, you can contribute your part to improve the quality of life of people in poor parts of our planet.

We often already have too many material things we don’t need

In our currents state of the world, we often also have many things we actually don’t need at all.

Thus, many of us do not need additional material stuff that may do more harm than good.

Instead, by donating our birthdays, we can use our resources in a much more efficient manner since our money will end up in regions where it is urgently needed.

Donating your birthday is better for our environment

Another benefit of donating your birthday is that you can also do good for our environment.

In fact, the production of our material goods implies significant levels of pollution and habitat destruction.

In turn, by lowering our consumption levels, we can also protect our environment in the long run.

One way to lower our consumption levels is to donate our birthdays since instead of getting material things, we can send money to areas where our money and our resources are needed the most.

You can inspire your family and friends to do the same

Apart from your individual positive impact of donating your birthday, you can also inspire your family and friends to do the same.

In fact, we are all influenced by the people around us and if you do good for others, chances are that the people you hang out with will do so as well.

You can raise awareness on problems through donating your birthday

Another upside of donating your birthday is that you can raise awareness of important global problems.

For instance, many people may not even be aware of the fact that hundreds of thousands of children die each year since they don’t get sufficient food and water.

Thus, in order to mitigate those serious problems, donating your birthday can be a great tool to raise awareness of as many people as possible in order to change things for the better.

You can grow in character

By donating your birthday, you can also really grow in character.

In fact, many people still believe that the more material things they have, the happier they are.

This is in fact not true at all and many people who live a minimalist lifestyle are actually much happier than people living in fancy homes.

However, it takes time and experience to realize this and donating your birthday can be a first step in the right direction.

Donating your birthday is easy

It is also quite easy to donate your birthday.

You just have to inform your birthday guests that you do not want any presents and that they should donate to charity organizations instead.

Online platforms give you additional opportunities to donate your birthday

Thanks to our modern technology, you are now also able to donate your birthday by using online platforms.

This can not only be quite convenient, but it can also help to raise much more money.

In fact, you can invite all your social media contacts to donate for your birthday and in many cases, people are actually positively surprised by how much money people are really willing to donate online.

Variety of different charity projects to choose from

Since donating our birthdays has become quite popular over the past years, the number of charity options also have increased quite a lot.

In fact, you will have the opportunity to choose from many different charity organizations.

In turn, you can make sure that your money will be used in the area you think that it will be needed most.

Your happiness should not depend on material things anyway

While getting birthday presents can be nice, it should not matter for your overall level of happiness.

In fact, is your happiness is based on material things, you are not on the right track in my opinion and you should evaluate your internal value system.

In fact, if you base your happiness on material stuff, you can get into serious difficulties in case you get into financial trouble and will no longer be able to afford those nice toys.

We all should feel obliged to help the poorest in our global society

In general, especially in our Western world, we should all feel obliged to help the poorest in our global society.

In fact, many people who now earn millions of dollars would never have been able to do so if they were born in poor parts of our planet instead.

Thus, if you are one of those lucky people who were born in the wealthy parts of the world, make sure to give something back from time to time and donating your birthday is a great way to do so.

Disadvantages of Donating your Birthday

1. You will not get as many presents if you donate your birthday
2. Fundraising for your project may fail
3. Money may not be used in a senseful manner
4. You will not know exactly for what your money will be used for
5. Some charity organizations are rather dodgy
6. You may regret it later on
7. Amounts of money people donate are often quite small
8. Some people may not have the technical knowledge to support you
9. Many people are just not ready to donate their birthday
10. Some people just want to look good in front of their peers

You will not get as many presents if you donate your birthday

Apart from the benefits of donating your birthday, there are also some issues related to this concept.

One obvious disadvantage of donating your birthday is that you will get fewer birthday presents or even no presents at all.

Hence, if your happiness really depends on presents, donating your birthday may not be for you.

Fundraising for your project may fail

Another problem with donating your birthday is that people may simply not want to donate money for your project.

This is especially true when it comes to projects that are considered as rather dubious.

Hence, if you plan to donate your birthday, make sure that you choose projects that are acceptable to the general public in order to raise as much money as possible.

Money may not be used in a senseful manner

Many people also fear that the money from those birthday fundraising operations will not end up where it is urgently needed.

In fact, there have been cases in the past where plenty of charity money has been wasted.

You will not know exactly for what your money will be used for

Although you can choose the organization you want to collect funds for, you will often not know exactly for what purposes your money will actually be used for.

Some charity organizations are rather dodgy

Another downside of donating your birthday is that some charity organizations are also rather dodgy.

In fact, since those birthday donations have become quite popular over the past years, there are also some companies out there that can be considered as sort of fraud.

Hence, make sure that you choose reputable companies for donating your birthday so that you can maximize the chance that your money will end up where it is most urgently needed.

You may regret it later on

While some people are quite happy with the idea of donating their birthday first, some people may also regret that they donated their birthday later on.

In fact, some people just don’t feel happy without getting birthday presents and if you are one of those people, donating your birthday may not be the way to go for you.

Amounts of money people donate are often quite small

Another issue with donating your birthday is that people are often not willing to donate significant amounts of money.

In turn, this also implies that you need a big number of people to raise substantial amounts of money and many birthday fundraising projects don’t reach their financial goals.

Some people may not have the technical knowledge to support you

While fundraising with the help of the internet can be quite convenient for most people, some people struggle with those new technologies.

In fact, especially the older generation may have difficulties to donate money through the internet and in case you solely offer donations online, you may miss out on some money that would have been donated through old school methods.

Many people are just not ready to donate their birthday

Many people in our society are also just not emotionally ready to donate their birthday yet.

Thus, it may take additional time until a high number of people will be willing to donate their birthdays and to make an even bigger positive impact.

Some people just want to look good in front of their peers

While many people have a genuine desire to donate their birthday in order to help people in poor parts of our planet, some people just want to look good in front of their peers and don’t really care about the true purpose of donating their birthday.

Even though they will still collect money for charity, the intention behind it may be rather questionable.

Top 10 Donating your Birthday Pros & Cons – Summary List

Donating your Birthday Pros	Donating your Birthday Cons
Donating your birthday can improve your mood	Donating your birthday may not work
Donating your birthday can help the poorest	You may not collect enough money
You can get a cleaner conscience	People may not want to donate
We already have too many material things	Some people are not ready for it yet
You can grow in character	Fundraising may fail
You can help our environment	You may regret donating your birthday
We should feel obliged to donate	You will get fewer presents for yourself
Your happiness should not depend on presents	Some people just want to look good
Online platforms make it quite easy	Some charity organizations are rather dodgy
You can inspire your family and friends	Money may not be spent in a senseful manner

Should You Donate Your Birthday?

From the previous discussion, we can conclude that there are various important advantages and disadvantages of donating your birthday.

In my opinion, donating our birthdays is a great way to give something back to our global society.

In fact, I personally don’t need any presents to be happy and rather want to good for others instead.

Sources

https://freethegirls.org/blog/2018/1/25/how-to-donate-your-birthday-through-facebook-fundraising

https://readingpartners.org/blog/donate-birthday-charity/

https://dollarfund.org/donating-your-birthday-on-facebook/

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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