I heard about the One Laptop Per Child project years ago, and I always thought ‘I would love to help that project out’ in the vague way people who like to feel good about themselves do.

Today, I have been immersing myself in the TED talks and as a result of listening to the founder, went and bought one. It’s probably one of the best uses of $200 I’ve seen and when you put it on the credit card, you don’t really even notice the reduction in cash in your wallet.

Now that I have made the donation, I feel entitled to bombard you with the lessons I learned.

1. If you make more money than you spend, give some away to people who need it

I’m a firm believer in the ability of organisations like One Laptop and Kiva to sustainably and effectively increase the wealth of people who weren’t lucky enough to be born in a rich country. This benefits all of us and to be honest, we should probably all spend a bit more time actually doing something about it.

But I know that for the foreseeable future, I will not bring myself to spend any decent time helping out. However, other people have devoted their lives and sacrificed their incomes because they cannot sit back and enjoy the world they were born to unless everyone can share the same. Those people are heroes and it is the least we can do to help out financially. And I don’t mean $10 here and there. The more I think about it, the more I think a business should plan to invest at least 5-10% of it’s profits in charity. We shouldn’t think of it as an ego trip but a necessary part of creating a sustainable world that we can continue to run businesses in.

2. Don’t get caught up in the feeling that everyone demands your money

Come up with a strategy to deal with it. We’re all smart people, we can logically think through the effects of donations of money, versus donations of tools and resources that help people help themselves. Even if all charities are fundamentally aiming to do good, you have got to expect that most of them don’t have the answer and giving them money is not adding hugely to the solution. Not giving to them doesn’t make you a bad person, but it doesn’t mean you should just not give at all.

So, if you have a spare $200 that you know will otherwise go on partying or a new television or whatever it is that you don’t really need, Let Nicholas explain why giving it to him will be a much better option.