Originally published on JewishBoston.com.

If your inbox is anything like mine, the last two weeks have been a deluge of messages from well-meaning organizations helpfully reminding us that 2011 is about to end, and with it our last opportunity to take advantage of tax-deductable donations for this fiscal year. Each organization has kindly offered to be the recipient of any money we might need to donate in order to meet the needs of our tax accounting. How sweet of them!

I don’t begrudge any organization their chance to make however many sincere asks for donations they feel are necessary. In fact, for the years that I was chair of the board of Keshet, I was often the one writing these messages. And yet, this year I haven’t made a single year-end donation. Continue reading →