No, it’s not money under your mattress or stuffed in your pillow – though it may as well be. Lazy money is cash you have sitting around in accounts or investments that is not being used to any great benefit. We’re asking you to wake that cash up and put it to good use.

Don’t feel bad – we all do it. You have 18 bitty jobs through high school or uni and you get a superannuation fund with all of them. You don’t roll it over. Your $47.50 in hard earned super sits there whittling away with fees and admin costs, and it could be doing something beneficial.

For a start, you’ll be doing the environment a great deal of good service in stopping the statements being mailed to you. Yes, you know the ones – you get them, you groan, you think “I must cancel that account or roll it over”, you dump the unopened envelope on the kitchen bench, you use the envelope to make a list including: milk, bread, loo paper, pasta. You recycle the envelope and its contents two months later to assuage your guilt. And repeat.

The amount might be big. The amount might be small. But if you’re not going to use it or do anything with it – put it to better use by donating to a worthy cause!

Here are some examples of lazy money that you might recognise, with ways to donate:

• Money bank: Will you seriously ever use those five cent pieces to pay for your coffee? If you do, can you already feel the hate from the barista? Go to the bank, deposit your coins into your account, and then donate the value. If you are going on vacation soon, you can get rid of your loose change during your flight, by donating to your airline’s charity of choice. As an example, here’s what Qantas does along with other Oneworld members. British Airways runs this program for Comic Relief.
• Foreign cash: Still got those Euros in case you go back to France? Instead of letting them get lost in your wallet, hand the coins to a good cause. The Commonwealth Bank let you donate your unwanted coins direct to UNICEF. €60 cents will provide a child with a pencil and book for school. The same applies to traveller’s cheques and cash money cards. Transfer the money to a great cause!
• Interest in an account: Have an account that has compounded a little interest for you? Why not donate the proceedings to charity? You can do this through your workplace giving program, through the Bank’s rewards program or to their foundation, or directly to a charity’s website. Good2Give has worked with NAB so that their rewards customers can donate their points to charity through our online platform.
• Close an account: If you need to close a bank account and don’t want to withdraw the last few dollars, you can donate directly to a worthy cause, or opt to pay a few dollars to charity the next time you are at the supermarket checkout – you can do this at Coles, online with Woolworths.
• Expiring flight points: If your frequent flight points are expiring and you won’t get to use them, there is no reason not to donate the points. Your 2,900 Qantas points equates to $25 to charity, and 4,500 Virgin Australia Velocity points equate to a similar amount. If you’re not going to jet off to the Goldie before they evaporate, get online to give them away.
• Coins under the sofa: Even if you never keep coins in your pockets, they always find their way underneath your cushions. Who knows how? Gather them together and give!
• Forgotten superannuation funds: First you want to check what kind of residual cash you have kicking around in your 18 superannuation funds you forgot to roll over when you were a teenager, happily job hopping to earn extra cash in the school holidays. The Australian Tax Office has guidance on this. If the funds are unrestricted non-preserved benefits – you can cash them in. Now, you could deposit that into your bank account or roll it over, but you could also put that money to work for a good cause and donate to charity.

You might get your lazy funds back into your live accounts through EFT, or cheque, or they might be handed to you in cash. If you still want to give the money to a cause you believe in and not buy those sequined trainers you saw on sale, and your employer provides workplace giving, you can make a pre-tax donation to your charity of choice here.

To celebrate #GivingTuesday, we are asking Australians to give a little and then share their efforts with a photo or post on Facebook or LinkedIn. All you need to do is tag @good2give  #GivingTuesday with your post.

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