A spirit of generosity and giving back has become cool again!

Who would have thought? Following years of a nation hell-bent on self-indulgent style over substance, volunteerism, giving to charity, cause marketing and activism are making a comeback.

Donations given to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti topped $528 million.And the latest statistics are predicting that charitable giving by individuals could reach a whopping $227 billion this year, a 4.5 percent increase from 2009’s donation totals.

When I was asked to draft a blog posting for Vivanista on how and why donors should get involved with charities on a local level, I jumped at the chance. Since 2001 I’ve worked in fundraising with small nonprofit organizations, usually with annual budgets of under $1 million a year, and I well understand the challenges of doing it all — fundraising, marketing, public relations — with very limited resources.

Everyone has a different perspective on how to spend their charitable dollars. My own was formed from experiences working with local community benefit organizations and seeing, first-hand, just how much of difference a $25 gift could make.

So how do you decide where to give your hard-earned dollars? Where can you make the most difference?

It’s easy to see why so many prospective donors, lacking any close connection with a particular cause, will give their charitable gifts to already well-funded and well-“branded” charities. Organizations like Susan G. Komen, the Shriners Hospital, or Muscular Dystrophy Association are a few that come to mind …

Worthy causes all and I’m not knocking ‘em.

But when limited dollars flow to the bigger, international charities, the big get bigger and the organizations doing the vital work of holding your own community together get lost in the shuffle.

And, for the donor with a small amount to give – say under $100 – where can they give that gift and know that they are truly making a difference?

It might surprise you to learn that approximately 55% of the nonprofit organizations in the United States have operating budgets of less than $1 million.

These organizations are your neighbors – providing free health care to the uninsured, taking up the slack where public education fails, feeding the hungry and homeless when no one else will, providing housing and support for abused women and children, enriching lives through the arts, providing legal assistance to those without a voice … and so much more.

They’re the organizations providing the glue that holds our communities together in an increasingly fractured society. And your small gift to a local organization will certainly have a larger impact than a gift made to a national or international cause. Yours could even be the donation that helps keep an important program running or allows a new pilot project to start!

So where do you go about finding a local nonprofit organization?

One very simple way is via Guidestar. Guidestar is a website whose mission is to “revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving.” You can browse through the organizations that have registered in your city as 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. Look for organizations with missions that you support, take some time to review the organization’s website and download their 990 to get a clear picture of their finances.

Or if you’ve got some spare time and want to volunteer, do yourself a favor and check out a wonderful site known as Volunteer Match http://www.volunteermatch.org/ They’ll hook you up with a local organization matching your interests and talents.

I don’t generally recommend so-called *charity rating* sites. Their focus tends to be on the largest nonprofit organizations and their evaluation systems, usually based solely on an organization’s tax return, rarely take into account the impact the organization has on community.

Check out the organization’s website. Give them a call. Offer to volunteer or ask if you can visit their program in action.

And if you already give locally, be sure to tell your friends and neighbors about the wonderful work being done in your community.