Giving Doesn’t Require Opening Your Wallet

After pouring a collective $4 billion into emergency relief efforts this year, donors may feel tapped out.

But at the start of the holiday season, there are other ways to support your favorite cause, even when you’re short of cash. Often these noncash gifts are tax-deductible too.

“Clean out your closets, volunteer,” suggested Trent Stamp, executive director of Charity Navigator. “There are things you can do without pulling out your credit card.”

Typically about 50% of all charitable contributions are made during the holiday season, Stamp said. But this year -- with the Asian tsunami, the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Pakistan earthquake -- Americans were inundated with requests for disaster aid. Normally generous donors could be pulling at empty pockets this holiday season, leaving hundreds of local organizations that provide such things as food, shelter and environmental and animal services out in the cold.

On the bright side, the local charities most likely to feel the pinch also can benefit greatly from noncash gifts.

For instance, gifts of time are pivotal for Brothers’ Helpers, a small charity dedicated to feeding homeless in Los Angeles, said founder John Olsen.

Brothers’ Helpers, which operates out of St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Canada Flintridge, delivers 250 hot meals two nights a week to homeless people living on the outskirts of Chinatown.

The cost of each meal, which consists of chicken, rice, salad, beans, tortillas, sweets and coffee, is just $1, Olsen said. That low cost is made possible by volunteers, who use their own time, and sometimes their kitchens, to make the food, and their own cars to deliver it.

“We pick up food from stores every day of the week. We also collect clothing; wash it, fold it and send that downtown too,” said Olsen, who runs the charity in his spare time. “Other than that, we are not really busy,” he deadpanned.

If someone wants to give time rather than money, Olsen said, “We give them our schedule and put them to work.”

Donors cannot claim tax deductions for their time, but they can take write-offs for out-of-pocket expenses while volunteering, Stamp said. However, it’s up to the taxpayer to keep track of the costs.

Allowable costs include commuting expenses to and from the charity, meals and lodging on trips away from home on the charity’s behalf, telephone calls, materials and supplies. Those who host a fundraiser for a charity can write off everything, including the invitations and the food and drink they supply.

Those claiming commuting expenses have two options: They can claim deductions for their actual commuting costs, or simply claim mileage at a rate of 14 cents a mile. Given the current cost of gasoline, many experts suggest that taxpayers keep track of their actual costs.

In addition, gifts of used clothing, housewares, furniture, books and other items can also be donated and written off on tax returns.

The IRS generally takes the taxpayer’s word for the value of the donated goods. Those giving more than $500 of personal items to a charity need to keep a record of what was donated and how it was valued, however.

Used cars can be given to charity and written off, but a law passed this year restricts the deduction to $500 or the amount the charity gets when it resells the car, whichever is greater. (That law was passed after a General Accountability Office study found that donors were taking huge write-offs for junker cars that were sold for a pittance.)

When possible, charities prefer cash gifts because it is easy to use cash to address a specific need, said Diana Aviv, chief executive of Independent Sector, a national coalition of about 550 charities and foundations.

“On the other hand, the nature of our society is that we want people to get involved and volunteer,” she said.

Volunteers may start out just giving time, she said, but they often come back and find ways to give money too.

“You may think you’re tapped out because you only have so much discretionary money to give to charity, but if you volunteer, you might go back and decide you are not going to buy that extra outfit or go out to eat,” she said. “You may economize in ways that you never thought about before because of the experience.”

Kathy M. Kristof, author of “Investing 101” and “Taming the Tuition Tiger,” welcomes your comments and suggestions but regrets that she cannot respond individually to letters or phone calls. Write to Personal Finance, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail kathy.kristof @latimes.com. For previous columns, visit latimes.com/kristof.