donating

There are plenty of good reasons to give time or money to your favorite nonprofit.

Some people do it for the tax write-offs. (Hey, whatever works!)

Others do it because it makes them feel all warm and tingly. The Wall Street Journal recently cited a study that found "donating to charity may actually improve a giver’s physical and emotional well being."

But the best stories of giving, the ones that move us the most, are the ones that start and end with a pure, selfless desire to make the world a better place.

92nd Street Y, a cultural nonprofit in New York, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently ran an essay contest called #MyGivingStory to find out more about why people give back.

Here are the two winning entries, as written by Kenan Rahmani and Jenny Mosier, respectively.

Kenan Rahmani gives to help Syrian refugee children build a better future.

Photo by Karam Foundation, used with permission.

Kenan Rahmani's winning essay:

"A couple months ago, the world was moved by a photograph of a young lifeless Syrian child washed up on a Turkish beach.

The death of this boy, Alan Kurdi, was just one out of thousands of stories of Syrian children who have been killed in the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Millions of Syrian children have forgotten what it is like to be a child, to go to school, to look forward to the future with hope. Karam Foundation helps remind these kids — and the world — that Syrian refugee children are #NotInvisible. Through a variety of education programs and direct assistance to families in dire need, Karam restores hope to the world's most vulnerable.

Since 2012, I have been donating to Karam Foundation (a Chicago-based nonprofit), which helped over 322,000 Syrians and 72,000 children in 2014 alone.

But two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the difference that Karam makes, by volunteering on one of the organization's Innovative Education missions in southern Turkey, just a few miles from the Syrian border at the Ruwwad Syrian Refugee School. 40 volunteer mentors and experts from around the world joined, among them dentists, doctors, psycho-social workers, artists, journalists, and even a culinary arts mentor!

These children have seen the worst of this world. Many of them had been rescued from their homes after they were bombed by Syrian government barrel bombs. Some of them had recently fled the horrors of ISIS. Many had lost fathers, mothers, or brothers and sisters. All of them had lost their homes. Despite the ugliness they have witnessed, they yearned to learn, to play, and to smile. They were just as innocent and enthusiastic as any child I have ever met, yet the trauma of the Syrian war was impossible to ignore.

Photo by Karam Foundation used with permission

My co-mentor and I prepared a week-long Student Council workshop for the high-school students to give them an experience in democracy, a concept they had only heard about while growing up under a dictatorship. At first we sensed cynicism from the kids as we discussed basic tenets of democracy and encouraged students to nominate themselves for office, but as they started to design campaign posters and work on their speeches, we noticed how invested they became in the process. By the last day, the excitement filled every classroom as the students debated and held elections. A brilliant young woman, Wafa, from the 12th grade became the first President of the Ruwwad Student Council.

During this time, other mentors taught the school's 750 children cooking, journalism, filmmaking, self-defense, computer programming, and philosophy. They were examined by dentists and eye doctors, many for the first time in their lives. They painted the grim halls of their school with colorful flowers, instructed by a muralist from South Africa. By our last day of the mission, the school and the students had been transformed, and so had each of the volunteers who had travelled with us.

As Syrian refugees are rejected and shunned in many countries, with politicians equating refugees with the terrorism they fled, Karam seeks to empower refugees instead. Karam has chosen to invest in Syria's youth. Karam gives them the tools of mentorship and innovative education so these kids become global citizens equipped to succeed and create opportunities to build a better future for themselves, their communities, and their country.

This Giving Tuesday, I hope people around the world will choose to support Syrian refugees who have suffered unimaginable loss but still believe in building a hopeful future. Karam Foundation changes lives every single day. I witnessed for myself how lives can be transformed, and futures built, when dedicated individuals put humanity above everything else.

That's what inspires me to give."

Jenny Mosier gives to keep the memory of her son, Michael, alive.

Photo by Jenny Mosier, used with permission.

Jenny Mosier's winning essay:

"It was the week after my son turned six years old and also started kindergarten that we knew something was wrong.

My son, Michael, had always been a healthy, energetic little boy who loved sports and learning. On August 25, 2014, he boarded the bus for his first day of kindergarten, and he turned six years old just two days later. Life was really good, and with Michael's little sister Lila (then 2.5 years old), our family felt happy and complete.

Suddenly, at the end of that week, Michael began complaining of double vision. We would learn on September 4, 2014, that he had an inoperable pediatric brain tumor called DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma), with a median survival of nine months from diagnosis and essentially a zero percent survival rate. With hopes that he would be the miracle, he underwent 30 radiation treatments, followed by chemotherapy, but unfortunately Michael continued to deteriorate.

On August 24, Michael had been jumping across trampolines with his friends for his birthday party, and just weeks later, he had lost the ability to walk on his own and relied on a wheelchair. Over a period of months, his body weight doubled due to the steroids necessary to reduce the inflammation in his brain. He lost the functioning of the left side of his body, and over time he would also be unable to speak, chew, swallow, and then finally breathe. Michael passed away just 8.5 months later on May 17, 2015.

His story is tragic, but also unfortunately representative of what kids facing DIPG have to confront.

The way that my son approached his illness, however, was anything but ordinary. While his body failed him bit-by-bit every single day, his mind remained intact, and he fought with every ounce of his being. Michael continued to go to school whenever possible, and he met each day with determination. Michael became known for his checklists. Each morning, he sat down with his father and wrote a list of everything he would accomplish that day, and despite his exhaustion from the treatments he endured, he would not go to sleep unless the list was completed. He inspired thousands across the world — from more than 60 countries — to donate money for pediatric brain cancer research, resulting in him earning the award as the top fundraiser in one of the largest brain cancer events in the country.

Michael is without a doubt the strongest person I have known.

Photo by Jenny Mosier, used with permission.

I give to Michael Mosier Defeat DIPG Foundation not just to honor my son — though of course that is a part of it — but to carry on the fight that he began. I give because hundreds of children each year are diagnosed with DIPG, and they deserve HOPE. They deserve people fighting for them, and that is now what I do every day.

Our family has given and will always give financially, and I have also resigned from my job as a lawyer to dedicate myself full time to this cause. We will fight to find a cure to DIPG because we want the next family sitting in a waiting room with their normally healthy child — who finds out they have DIPG — to have options to save their child's life.

We will complete the final item on Michael's checklist: Defeat DIPG."

Cheers to Jenny and Kenan, two excellent humans who are showing the rest of us how it's done.

We should all take a little time this holiday season to find our own reason for giving back. Maybe, like Jenny, the answer will be right in front of us. Or maybe we'll have to look a little harder.

Either way, after reading these incredible stories, it's hard not to be inspired to go out and make a difference.