Last Day to Donate for USA Tax Deductions!

Friday, December 31st, is the last day of the year and that means it's the last day for USA tax deductions for donations! (If your financial/tax situation applies) Declutter and DONATE to help yourself and your community, and enter 2011 a little lighter!

To find the Goodwill® donation center nearest you, visit http://donate.goodwill.org. This "D" is the universal symbol of donation that we launched with Levi's this June with the Donate Movement, for which I am the Ambassador. (People keep joking with me that I'm a "Goodwill Ambassador"– I guess so! LOL) Levi's has this symbol on the care tags of its jeans.

Goodwill just had a fantastic story on the NBC Nightly News that shows what kind of impact your donations have on JOBS. Watch it here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Many people think that Goodwill just places people in jobs in their own retail stores, sorting the donations– it's so much bigger than that! Every 45 seconds of every business day, a person served by Goodwill earns a good job. Goodwill also provides training, career counseling, and many other community services that support employment.

I just read an interview with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke that said unemployment is the number one problem in our economy– and Goodwill helps that situation daily, all across the US and the world. Your stagnant stuff in your own house can help too!

You can calculate the impact of your donation with Goodwill's Donation Impact Calculator, at http://donate.goodwill.org.  It's fun! Here's a screenshot of it below– click it for a larger view or just visit the site to put in your own values.

Did you know that…?

• 5 pairs of shoes, 3 dresses and 2 purses = 1 hour of career counseling
• 1 bike and 5 video games = 1 hour of resume preparation
• 1 working computer = 8.1 hours of on-the-job training
• 2 chairs and a TV = 1.2 hours of a financial planning class
• 10 CDs or DVDs = 50 minutes of a job search class

To help determine the value of your donations and your subsequent tax deductions, you can check out two great tools, www.itsdeductible.com and www.charitydeductions.com.

Happy New Year, everyone! May your 2011 be fruitful, and may you always be happy and grateful for having MORE THAN ENOUGH.

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