When I first started wedding planning, I was bombarded with websites full of trinkets that were supposed to be used as wedding favors. Picture frames, chocolates, coasters; it all seemed like a huge waste of money to me. I decided pretty early on that either I was going to either do a donation "favor" or not do one at all.
I know that there are two schools of thought on donation "favors;" those for it and those against it. Out of all of the reasons I've read that people are against it, the most common I've seen is that guests don't like them because they don't get to choose where "their" money goes. The bride and groom might choose a charity that their guests don't support so they don't feel comfortable donating "their" money. Because of this, I decided that I wanted our guests to have a say on where "their" money went. We chose two foundations that are both close to our hearts and our families. My dad was diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome about 10 years ago and Keegan's uncle was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer earlier this year so we decided those were the charities we wanted to support.
We contacted both my dad and Keegan's uncle and told them what we were planning so they wouldn't be taken aback on the day of the wedding and also so they could suggest charities we could donate to. Both of them had foundations that have helped them and wanted to donate money towards so that's how we chose the Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Foundation of America and the The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins.
To allow our guests to participate in the donation, we gave each of them a card with two tokens. On the card it explained why we wanted to do the donation, what the charities were, and why they were important to us. Many of our guests knew about my dad's and Keegan's uncle's struggle with their diseases so they knew why the charities were important. The card also explained that each token was worth $3 and that the guest could choose where "their" money went. We had two jars next to our guest book with labels for the tokens. Throughout the night our guests placed their tokens in the jars. After we got back from our honeymoon, we tallied up the donations and wrote each charity a check.
Sheet explaining the charities and the coins
Jars for the tokens (before they were placed next to the guest book.)
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