The Give Guide

Charity Navigator, a rating service, uses the most recent tax-filing figures available to determine transparency, accountability, and financial health.

Including a colorful hardbound wedding album from Bohemian Red Images, by offbeat Indy photographer Katie Basbagill.

Okay, so Indy isn’t perfect. Nearly 20 percent of the city’s families lived below the poverty line last year, and as many as 5,000 people went homeless (while several times that many pets did). It’s enough to make you throw up your hands. Why not lend one instead? We found 66 ways to share time, money, or belongings. The only skills you really need are generosity and all-around swellness. And who knows? You might even have fun doing it.

Your go-to guide to give back in specific ways to those less fortunate in the Indianapolis and Central Indiana communities.

“We were treading into unfamiliar territory, a rundown part of the city where even the most beautiful of white snow couldn’t disguise the gloom and desolation of the abandoned buildings.”

“I had a lot of disappointments, not being able to read. Problems in school, people making fun of me, people laughing. I left when I was about 15. I was good with my hands, so I tried going into Job Corps.”

We found 66 ways to share time, money, or belongings. The only skills you really need are generosity and all-around swellness. And who knows? You might even have fun doing it.

Whenever I took walks in the park with my own dog, Puppy would run out of an alley or from between two houses to meet us. I liked to believe that when it got dark and the night turned cold, he went back to wherever he was supposed to be, and someone there let him inside.