Special Education Charity Wedding Favors

Giving to a charity is not a favor to your guests.

This is generally considered bad form. You can donate to a charity (Autism Speaks isn't a very good one in terms of fiscal management) in honor of your wedding without using it as a favor to your guests.

You can contact the foundation(s) you are interested in.

But yeah, give them the money, no one needs to know about it.

Autism speaks isn't even a good one. I wouldn't be happy knowing you donated "in my name".

Donate on your own. Don't do it for your guests or as a favor for your guests.

Why do you need to showcase you donating the money? Do you need a pat on the back?

Just do your good deed and move on.

Best Buddies is one of my favorite charities to give to. A lot of the money goes to programs. Here is website that helps to navigate where the donations go to: https://www.charitynavigator.org/

Do what @OliviaP said, and there's no need to tell everyone about it

People seem to have very strong opinions about this. I'm one of those people who donates to anyone who calls so I think it's great. A friend of mine who is diabetic made donations to the American Diabetes Association in lieu of favors and everyone thought it was great. They put cards at everyone's place settings so we knew that we wouldn't be getting a favor and instead the money went to a charity. I liked knowing.

Then let me ask you all this: Instead of food (because I'm also dealing with lots of medical needs and allergies at my wedding), what would be other nice wedding favors to give to my guests that won't just be left there or tossed out when they get home?

We were originally going to combine the donation idea with something else that would be meaningful, and would be okay for those medical/allergy needs listed above.

Or in the end, does it even matter if we do wedding favors at all?

And yes, I'm aware that the Autism Speaks one probably wouldn't have been a good idea, but that's why I listed it to avoid anyone posting it (got quite the opposite reaction, actually) because I wanted more diversity. I wanted more options than just them.

And no, I'm not looking for a pat on my back. My family is full of charity donors. This is just something that we DO. Many of my relatives are cancer survivors, and we attend fundraising events for such things. I spend my charitable time doing things differently than them, and I've donated money to the autism school that I currently work at. This isn't to make me look good; this is just something that's normal for me to do.

I wanted to do this, but from what I've seen online, a lot of these cards or trinkets are paired with cookies and candies, but again---can't quite do this because of food and medical allergies. That's why I was interested in the Autism Speaks favors, because it's not food, and it's something that could still be given to people.

You don't have to do favors at all.

Favors arent necessary.

You don't have to do favors, 95% of the time I leave them (unless it's food or chapstick..I have a thing for chapstick) everything else is clutter. No favors here.

I've been to one wedding where instead of favors a donation was made to a non profit animal rescue. I loved the idea but I'm biased because they donated to my rescue.

Others that I spoke to at the wedding like the fact that they knew the money would be put to good use since I knew most of the bride's side. I don't know if the feeling would have been so favorable if the donation was made to a large charity.

I'm with others on this one. Donate on your own. No need to advertise your donation. As a guest I wouldn't want a donation made in my honor to certain charities. Too much mismanagement and misspending.

You don't need favors. If you really want to give, whatever you would spend on favors donate to your school and no one has to know.

Favors are unnecessary. To me they're just one more thing to worry about taking home.

Put the money you'd spend into something else: food, décor, transportation, etc.

Skip favors. People don't want or need them.