Giving is more important than ever

So here we are in the midst of an honest-to-God global financial crisis. Stocks have lost 20 percent in the past seven days, and are down roughly 40 percent for the year. This is bad, no question.

But it's only going to mean that there's going to be even more demand for charitable giving, and this is where Five Dollar Heroes comes in. Sure, people are going to cut back on the big gifts and efforts as they tighten their belts. But I think people can still come up with five bucks a week. How, you ask?

• Bring your lunch to work.
• Skip the latte one day a week, or switch to drip coffee for the week.
• Store brands are your friends when food shopping.
• Save on your electric bill (and the planet) by shutting off all unnecessary electronics at home.

There are plenty of other ideas, of course, and if you have one, e-mail me and I'll post it on the blog. But hey, the whole idea is that we can all find a way to scrape up five extra bucks and give it to folks who really need it. So find that extra fiver, and give it up!

You've got mail! And more mail...and more mail...

I'm glad I opened a new e-mail address (fivedollarheroes@gmail.com) for this site, because there's been an unforeseen by-product to all this giving. I'm already getting a bit of charity spam coming my way, and I'm sure it's only going to get more intense.

So here's a helpful hint: If you're planning on becoming a regular Five Dollar Hero, you might want to get a free Gmail or Yahoo e-mail account for your charitable efforts. Not only will it spare your personal e-mail some extra spam, but you'll also have all your electronic contribution receipts in one handy account come tax time.

And you can also use that account to sign up for the semi-official Five Dollar Heroes mailing list by dropping me a line at the above e-mail, too...!