What does it mean to donate time, talent and treasure?

Time, talent, and treasure each refer to the different ways youth can help nonprofit organizations.

Time - The time you spend serving others through a nonprofit, you are donating time. You are doing great work and GivingPoint wants to reward teens with 5 points for every one hour they donate their time.

For instance, when you clean up a park or feed the hungry at a food shelter, you are donating your time (donating your time to help the community, but not necessarily using one of your unique skills or talents).

Talent - The time you spend donating your "talent" is when you use your unique skills or talents to help others. When you donate your "talent" you are taking advantage of your unique capabilities to help a nonprofit. We love that teens are using their skills to help the community, so GivingPoint will reward teens with 10 points for every hour they donate their talent.

Skills-based volunteerism can take many forms, from giving your feedback on a youth advisory board to teaching young kids how to play golf (if you are skilled at playing sports). A few more examples: if you are passionate and skilled at programming computers or using resources on the web and you donate your talents to help senior citizens learn how to use the computer, then that is considered "skills-based volunteering" because you are using your unique talents and capabilities. If you are a good piano player and you go to a nonprofit to play the piano for others, you are using your talent.

Treasure - When you donate your treasure, you are donating cash or goods to help others in need. When you fundraise for a nonprofit, you are also donating cash, so that counts as treasure. You can make a huge difference to the lives of others when you contribute treasure to causes that you care about, so if you post a project and fundraise through GivingPoint, we will reward teens with 1 point for every $10 dollars that they fundraise or donate.

Donating treasure can take many forms, such as contributing cash or goods. By "goods" we mean donating an item to a nonprofit that others need, such as clothes, shoes, books or cell phones. GivingPoint does not reward points for donated goods, but we do count the time you put towards collecting and taking the items to a nonprofit as volunteer time. So, please remember to log in any time you volunteered to help collect and donate goods to a nonprofit.