honestbizpro

I was really appalled when I found out that charities can legally keep almost all of every dollar they collect for "administrative purposes!

Even the Red Cross was guilty of this during the 9-11 crisis!

I am sure it feels good to give, but I bet it would feel even better if we knew the money got to the intended party.

Do we give to feel good or do we give for others to feel good? Or does it even matter?

If a Millionaire ask you to make a donation do you hesitate or do you concentrate on the cause?

Do you secretly ask your self why doesn't the Millionaire just take care of it?

I think when it comes to giving money it's like the Circle of Life. It goes around and comes back around.

The tighter you hold on to it the more you choke the flow of it coming to you.

thurana

I've read "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton, so I get your point. (It's not exactly the same since it discusses about environmental organization, but the general ideas are similar)

For me personally, if I always worried that the donation I gave will fall into (or kept by) the wrong hands, I would never donate. So, here's what I do:
--> I always pick the organizations that I really trust (like church).

And after my donations "leave my hands" I leave it to the "greater consciousness" to arrange where they should land.

mikeyg

I watched an investigative documentary a while back that reviewed the various religious and public charities and interestingly enough showed that on average only 3 cents from every dollar sent actually went to the people it was supposed to help. The rest went to the administrators.

From a personal point of view, i believe these organizations are very disempowering because in a way they are teaching reliance on the organization which is a form of disempowerment.

If someone asks for my help I will give it ot them but in a way that empowers them and makes them self reliant so they can do it themselves. I find it interesting, that in a lot of cases when this type of help is offered, it is refused.

dorim

I donate to three local animal shelters in my area, I volunteer for them too so I know they need the money and do not waste it and only one of those shelters has a paid employee. No high administrative costs there.

Sid Kaplan

Wonderful to hear what you are doing for animals. I just lost my little girl (dog - we don't have kids) this week and we are considering setting up a foundation in her name to make sure folks with sick animals can get the care and attention their pets need. The reason we want to do this is to make sure the money gets spent on doing something not just moving paper around.

We support a child in Africa but I always wonder if the money actually gets things done for the kids. Many times gifts don't make it to the children.

I think giving precedes receiving and the more you help others the richer (in all ways) your life will be.

Keep up the good work with animals.

Best

Sid

rdbranson

This is a great question, actually. You may be surprised to know that there is very little reflective, thoughtful stuff on this. I believe that a promising site is truestewardship.com which has been around for a while, with little going on.
A friend of mine told me that they are getting more active.
I believe that charity or giving is a very important topic that ought to get a lot more attention.

Vincelog

Hi honestbizpro,

I agree with you on the idea of giving. But it is always better to know where our funds are directed to. Giving money also help to remove our strong attachment to it thus improving the flow of money into our life.

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

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Nahar

I totally agree and I do the same. I am personally involved in my Church's efforts to help those in need and I know that every penny goes where it should. Zero to administrative purposes - it's all run by volunteers, etc.

I don't think the government should regulate everything but I think all charities should come with similar labols as food, but instead of informing the potential contributor how much fat they contain they should simply provide clear info about what percentage of our donations goes to the children in Africa and what chunk goes to the administration, higher management, etc.

riteforu

I notice when I donate to charities my whole week is better and it is true it comes back to you tenfold.

BloggingforMoney

Kim Davis

I believe in giving, but not to someone that knocks on my door. I like to give to local places that need help. The shelter for abused women, a lot of women have their kids there and the kids can always use something. The animal shelter, always need food, paper towels, blankets, laundry soap, garbage bags, litter etc. I give away items I no longer use to charity yard sales. I will also give away my time to help out. You can also make crafty things to sell for people that have fundraisers. The Public Schools can always use art supplies for the younger grades and a new microwave for the higher grades. I don't mind purchasing an item and donating it. I never give cash to anyone. I leave that up to the people that can afford to spend $10,000 on a wedding cake. We see lots of that on TV.

Final Verdict

I think legit charities are great. individuals willing to do anything to help a cause. I tend to stick with Salvation Army's, United Way and other naitonally known organizations to donate to. Of course they have administrative expenses, the people who head these organizations need to earn a living aswell, and there are expenses to run fund drives, and overhead expenses to run the organization.

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Simo

Our ability to decide which charity we give to/volunteer for/ and connect with all comes back to our personal values and beliefs. I guess the challenge for charities in this day and age is that they have to act more and more like businesses. i.e. (as Final Verdict says above) Pay staff, advertise, and manage the "structure" of the charity. The fact that charities are changing is a reflection on us as a society changing. In New Zealand for instance businesses are offering less and less goodwill to charities like "free postage" or "free telephone lines". The goalposts have shifted for charities and they are having to adapt. I have no problem with 60 cents in the dollar going to the charity but the real issue here is disclosure on what is actually going to the cause versus the "charity". This would be nice to know

I challange everyone to go and donate their time to a charity instead of their money. I can tell you its a hell of a lot more enriching and fulfilling for me to give my time to my favourite charity (Camp Quality) that putting money in an envelope (which I do too)...

Great comments everyone - keep them coming

rgenterprise

honest biz pro-I can't pm you cuz i don't have my post count up yet..workin on it though. Anyway I purchased your ebook for $10 last week and have some ?'s. Can you pm me? thanks

rgenterprise

And to answer the question:That is the main reason why I am so hesitant when it comes to donating. Because you don't really know if the money is going to the cause. I remember when I was a kid and the infomercials would come on with the kids in Africa looking dirty and poor and flies in their faces and foods and I would starting bawling to my dad, begging him to send money to help these people. And he never would because he said that 'its not going to help them. It's going to the spokesperson'. Thought my dad was the meanest person in the world for not wanting to help lol But obviously get older and realize he was right. It's just unfortunate.

Kay King

I ignore it - I have animal shelters, animal rescue groups and animal refuges that I donate to. I've checked them out and know they keep administrative costs low and use the money for care of the animals.

For example, for my county's animal shelter I don't donate money. I donate bags of food, treats, bedding, cleaning supplies, etc. That's because I learned cash donations go into the county's General Fund and were not guaranteed to go to the shelter.

Animal groups need more help now than ever. Shelters are bulging at the seams due to animals abandoned or turned in by owners due to foreclosures and by those who say they can no longer afford to care for the pets. It's a crisis nationally that has gotten little media attention.

kay

Styleearn.com

I donate in charity , but I think , inspite of donate in charities , it will be better if i direct communicate the needies , to just assure that my donation is worh someon'es hunger and studies.

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bionictortoise

Well, charities do have their own costs, and admin is one of them. They also have annual reports just like businesses, so if they were not totally transparent on how they spent their money, they would be investigated.

Where did you hear that "charities can legally keep almost all of every dollar they collect"?

I am a member of seven charities for children and the elderly, and give regularly by Direct Debit. It's important for charities to know roughly what they will get each month. I did so even when I was broke, as they were charities I was involved in myself.

What I hate is when presenters of TV shows say that a percentage "of your phone-in money will go to charity"

But they don't say WHICH charity! That's worse than not giving to charity at all.

That's like saying all charities are exactly the same. And if they really do give to charity, they are insulting those charities by not thinking them worthy of a mention of the good work they do.

I think it's just the TV show trying to come across as caring, but by not naming the charities, they show themselves up as being insincere.

Tyrus Antas

I am wary of helping people through intermediaries.

I prefer to help people locally. I understand their problems so I can provide better relief. There's also a problem with not expecting anything in return. I always expect the person/local org to make progress in whatever their trying to solve, and because they know that, and they know me(I'm local) there's better accountability.

Tyrus

Lokki08

Here's my advice and now I'm writing every word according to my life experience and about knowledge what I have got and appreciated about charity.

Charity is one of the most wonderful things that we should. It doesn't matter how much you will give charity nor what kind of thing you give to charity i.e. money, clothes, food.

Best charity will happen ONLY when you give charity for needed one. I highly advice that people should not give money on charity but rather ownself should give to needed one. You will then realize truly that why is so wonderful to give charity.

You will understand the feeling of giving charity to real needed people. Charity organizations are taking always own fees as their reward but it is understandable if you want to have a company.

But my opinion about charity organizations is that every charity should be done volunteerly.

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honestbizpro

Hi bionictortoise ,

I remember reading this article some time ago, I do not know if much has changed since then.

In Giving to Charity, Let the Donor Beware - ABC News

aparadekto

Whether you are a flight stewardess, a bookkeeper or an engineer... you are helping the world in your own unique ways. Or you are helping a company who is helping other companies help the world be a better place, or help maintain the already established good stuff.

So why not be good at it? Why not be good at helping?

imventures

Kinda of reminded me of an episode of My Name is Earl, where there was this guy who was duped into giving to fake charities. He felt terrible when he found out, not because he felt cheated but because he lost the sense of purpose he had when he was giivng to "charity".

Anyway, I normally don't give to canvasers, because they take a large proportion of the money donated (sometimes up to 80%). I give to the community chest and let them sort it out.

By the way, did you know there was a site that rates charities? see http://www.charitynavigator.org/

mohd3rd

One of the things that's making a Networking company very succesful is it's charity works. That company has a theme of RYTHM, standing for

RAISE
YOURSELF
TO
HELP
MANKIND

of course it has its own way for the help, but they are helping people and achieving success through it!
AMWAY is the most networking company with business partners right now.
I doubt it if someone will this line again in a year or so, due to the success that company is achieving.

JRG

I like David Ramsey's philosophy of making as much money as you can and giving away as much as you can.

crlncwn

That's lovely That's what giving is all about. There's always lending at Kiva although it would be nice if most of the donations ended up where we want them to, like for feeding the hungry.

crlncwn

Hi, I'm new here and just figured out how to do this? and my first reply ended up down there somewhere

I was thinking that's lovely and it's what giving is all about.

dbarnum

I've found it more rewarding to get involved with the causes, instead of just sending a check. The more you are involved, you give of your time and your "self" in the process, and actually see how things run, where funds go, which places need the most attention, etc. And you will find that some causes simply are lost; i.e. funds do not go where you think they should, programs are not run well, etc. Then you choose what to do - -speak out, go elsewhere, stick it out and help with change, for example.

FrancisAllard

Very interesting post!

I work a lot with researching and analyzing charities, foundations, and even organizations that deal with non-profit and charity work for my website. What I have found is the following.

When you are looking for a charity to associate with, it is better to make sure they are active with the community and cause they are actually working for. Lots of charities these days are great because they have videos of themselves, photo blogs, and stories of themselves in the field. Some even sometimes do daily video streams of what they are doing! It keeps you in touch with what they are truly doing, and adds a sense of realism.

When was the last time you went to greenpeace, red cross, or any of those sites and saw videos of them giving back to the community, that you had not seen a trilion times before. Is this just stock footage?

Here are a few i would suggest checking out.

Charity:Water
Toms Shoes
Free The Children
The Unbeaten Track
Everywun.com


Many of the sites today have a breakdown of how their fees will be distributed. Now I know it's easy to lie on the internet, and i am sure a lot of these people are getting away with things, but I found that it is always better to research in depth the charity if you are going to hop on board and support it.

Example: Free The Children FINANCIALS

I currently donate each month to the SICK KIDS HOSPITAL in Toronto, and in JAN 2010 it's time to find a new one. I have charities on one year cycles, and every JAN i change who I am donating to.

For more information on some anazing charities or organizations check out my website! You might find one that interests you.

FrancisAllard

I agree that it is more rewarding to get involved with the cause at question. I plan in 2010 to actually get involved and travel across 3 continents in just over 1 month and making a photographic journey/documentery of the journey with stories and hard hitting photographs.

I plan on focusing on AIDS and POVERTY ridden countries and very very very poor places that people might not know exist, and bringing reality back to canada with me and publishing a book of the journey, filled with hard hitting images, journals, interviews, stories, everything!

But realistically, it's not always possible to get involved. Although I wish it were.