TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 12/26/12 -- As part of BMO Financial Group's ongoing commitment to financial literacy and 'Making Money Make Sense' for Canadians, BMO is releasing a financial tip every week in 2012.

BMO's Financial Tip of the Week: Volunteer this holiday season.

With many Canadians focussed on paying down debt and balancing other financial priorities, it's important to be aware of the other ways to give that don't necessarily involve money. According to a BMO Harris Private Banking study, 45 per cent of Canadians volunteered in 2012.

BMO Harris Private Banking offers the following things to keep in mind when volunteering during the holiday season and throughout 2013:

Make It Personal: If you have a few hours or days to spare during the holiday season or during the new year, take the opportunity to volunteer to help people in need. Choose an organization to which you feel a personal bond, whether involving children, seniors, animals, sports, the arts, or the environment. This deepens the connection to something that is particularly meaningful to you and can motivate you to volunteer more often.

Make It Social: Volunteering teaches children valuable life lessons about responsibility and their role in the world. Entice a preschooler, school-aged child or teenager to volunteer with you or as a family. Encourage friends and their children to join you, too.

Make It Corporate: Volunteering with colleagues improves office morale, engages employees and enables them to get to know each other better. Find out if your company has a volunteer program or is affiliated with a specific charitable organization; then volunteer as a group. If there is not a volunteer program in place, take the initiative and create a volunteer opportunity for your own work group.

Make It Balanced: More than half of Canada's 161,000 non-profit and charitable organizations have no paid staff and rely on volunteers for a wide variety of tasks.(i) But if you want to volunteer, make sure you do not overextend yourself by over-committing to the cause.

To find a list of registered Canadians charities visit the Canada Revenue Agency at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/charities/.

For more information, please visit: http://www.bmo.com/harrisprivatebanking.

The surveys conducted by Pollara were completed between November 2 and November 9, 2012 with a sample of 1,000 Canadians 18 years of age and older. Probability samples of this size would yield results accurate to +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

(i)Source: http://volunteer.ca/content/i-want-volunteer

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $525 billion as at October 31, 2012, and more than 46,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.