Charity begins at home...
Some thoughts and information on charitable giving
As we approach the end of the year, and yes, friends, it really is getting on toward the end of the year, scary as that may be, I know that some of you are thinking about some end-of-the year charitable giving. I was recently talking to angstville about this and she was musing out loud about how difficult it is, particularly this year, to figure out where and how to make donations in a year that has seen so many tragedies and so much need.
Since nonprofit and philanthropy issues are what I "do" professionally, I thought I'd put a few thoughts here. As always, feel free to ignore any or all of this.
Areas of great need
Natural disasters have clearly been the story of the year. In the following section, I'll list some of the areas where there is ongoing need, relief and/or reconstruction work, and some of the organizations that are there, on the ground. Clearly these lists are not exhaustive, but I wanted to give some ideas about places to start (note, many of the organizations are working in multiple locations):
The areas affected by the tsunami in December 2004
Mercy Corps
Episcopal Relief and Development
Catholic Relief Services
Church World Service
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Pakistan - where the need is utterly critical as winter comes on and people are literally freezing to death and dying of entirely preventable illnesses
AmeriCares
Doctors without Borders
UNICEF
World Vision
Catholic Relief Services
Oxfam
Guatemala - which suffered terrible mudslides and destruction in the wake of Hurricane Stan
Mercy Corps
World Vision
Project HOPE
Oxfam
The Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Catholic Charities
Foundations for Recovery - a portal site for a number of local charities
Foundation for the Midsouth - which will be concentrating on a number of social justice issues
Louisana Bucket Brigade - working on environmental justice and clean-up issues
America's Second Harvest - hunger issues
Africa - the ongoing civil strife in Sudan, hunger in West Africa, HIV/AIDS throughout, education needs
Doctors without Borders
Books for Africa
International Rescue Committee
CARE
Your local community
There are a lot of concerns among the US nonprofit community that "donor fatigue" will set in this year and that their operating funds will suffer because people will feel like they've already given as much as they can in response to the numerous disasters in the past 12 months. But the needs in your local community haven't diminished at all, and in fact, there is some evidence that federal budget cuts this year will mean that your local nonprofits will be expected to pick up more and more social services to needy children, families and individuals in the coming years. So, think about your local animal shelter, United Way or domestic violence shelter.
How do I know this is a "good" charity?
There are several systems out there that "rate" charities. One of the best known is Charity Navigator. There is also the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and the American Institute of Philanthropy. A word of caution: each of these systems look at somewhat different items and no one system is perfect. And, because some of these raters only look at charities of a certain size, just because you can't find a particular organization in the systems doesn't mean it is bad. But these are good places to start looking to see if this is an efficient and well-regarded charity. Beyond that, though, you need to make donations to places that speak to you. Take a look at their websites; maybe visit them, if they are local; and talk to your friends about what they may know about the organization.
If you're interested in how these charity rating systems stack up against each other, you might want to look at this article.
Clearly I think that charitable giving is important. Please feel free to share, in the comments, your favorite charity or cause and how to donate to it. I'm going to leave this post public, so also feel free to link to it, if you like.
ETA: I'm going to update this every so often because I've already realized that I forgot a couple groups for which I have a lot of respect.
Peace, my friends,
Viv
As we approach the end of the year, and yes, friends, it really is getting on toward the end of the year, scary as that may be, I know that some of you are thinking about some end-of-the year charitable giving. I was recently talking to angstville about this and she was musing out loud about how difficult it is, particularly this year, to figure out where and how to make donations in a year that has seen so many tragedies and so much need.
Since nonprofit and philanthropy issues are what I "do" professionally, I thought I'd put a few thoughts here. As always, feel free to ignore any or all of this.
Areas of great need
Natural disasters have clearly been the story of the year. In the following section, I'll list some of the areas where there is ongoing need, relief and/or reconstruction work, and some of the organizations that are there, on the ground. Clearly these lists are not exhaustive, but I wanted to give some ideas about places to start (note, many of the organizations are working in multiple locations):
The areas affected by the tsunami in December 2004
Mercy Corps
Episcopal Relief and Development
Catholic Relief Services
Church World Service
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Pakistan - where the need is utterly critical as winter comes on and people are literally freezing to death and dying of entirely preventable illnesses
AmeriCares
Doctors without Borders
UNICEF
World Vision
Catholic Relief Services
Oxfam
Guatemala - which suffered terrible mudslides and destruction in the wake of Hurricane Stan
Mercy Corps
World Vision
Project HOPE
Oxfam
The Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Catholic Charities
Foundations for Recovery - a portal site for a number of local charities
Foundation for the Midsouth - which will be concentrating on a number of social justice issues
Louisana Bucket Brigade - working on environmental justice and clean-up issues
America's Second Harvest - hunger issues
Africa - the ongoing civil strife in Sudan, hunger in West Africa, HIV/AIDS throughout, education needs
Doctors without Borders
Books for Africa
International Rescue Committee
CARE
Your local community
There are a lot of concerns among the US nonprofit community that "donor fatigue" will set in this year and that their operating funds will suffer because people will feel like they've already given as much as they can in response to the numerous disasters in the past 12 months. But the needs in your local community haven't diminished at all, and in fact, there is some evidence that federal budget cuts this year will mean that your local nonprofits will be expected to pick up more and more social services to needy children, families and individuals in the coming years. So, think about your local animal shelter, United Way or domestic violence shelter.
How do I know this is a "good" charity?
There are several systems out there that "rate" charities. One of the best known is Charity Navigator. There is also the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and the American Institute of Philanthropy. A word of caution: each of these systems look at somewhat different items and no one system is perfect. And, because some of these raters only look at charities of a certain size, just because you can't find a particular organization in the systems doesn't mean it is bad. But these are good places to start looking to see if this is an efficient and well-regarded charity. Beyond that, though, you need to make donations to places that speak to you. Take a look at their websites; maybe visit them, if they are local; and talk to your friends about what they may know about the organization.
If you're interested in how these charity rating systems stack up against each other, you might want to look at this article.
Clearly I think that charitable giving is important. Please feel free to share, in the comments, your favorite charity or cause and how to donate to it. I'm going to leave this post public, so also feel free to link to it, if you like.
ETA: I'm going to update this every so often because I've already realized that I forgot a couple groups for which I have a lot of respect.
Peace, my friends,
Viv