What's this?
A guide to charitable giving adapted from a blog post inspired by notes jotted as I tried to understand philanthropy, charities, poverty, and disease.
Organize your thoughts and feelings first
- Write down and commit to a giving strategy
- Find the right organizations to meet your goals with Charity Navigator
- Give directly or with Network for Good
- Before volunteering, think about your ability to earn and donate more
- Find a volunteer position with VolunteerMatch
- Involve others in your journey with Firstgiving
There are lots of problems
Researching the right solutions is getting easier online
The most important question, how much we give isn’t, if organizations squander it.
- Charity Navigator
- free web-based financial data and ratings of charities
- GuideStar
- data and tools, free and not, on more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations
- Network for Good
- search and donation tool for more one million charities and 36,000 volunteer opportunities
- American Institute of Philanthropy
- almost free print-oriented financial data and ratings of charities
- BBB Wise Giving Alliance
- Better Business Bureau information on charities
- JustGive
- GuideStar data in website that allows for donations to a few of the listed charities
- GiveWell
- A new entry, still in preview, that plans to rate charities' mission success, not just financial efficiency.
How much do people give and what should I?
There is a right answer: exactly the amount you want to give. I don’t think it worthwhile to compare yourself to others in a competitive sense. But, it does create perspective to know what people are doing. According to JustGive.org the average U.S. household gives 3.1% of their gross income; households earning below $10,000 give 5.2%. There is a campaign encouraging Americans to Give Five—only the poor are listening.If you do find value in comparisons, use percentage of disposable income. Jane may give more than John, but John has three kids and a mortgage to pay from factory wages, and Jane has no debt or dependents to support on a C-level salary.
Another factor to consider is tax savings. For people in the U.S., Charity Navigator has a Giving Calculator to estimate those. You may have more to give than you expect when taxes are considered. If you’re in the U.S., remember that the IRS now requires proof for all giving.
Play with your numbers in a giving calculator
- Charity Navigator’s Giving Calculator
- calculate US tax savings for a given donation and tax bracket
- Network for Good’s Giving Calculator
- calculate donation amounts as percentages of annual income
Some ways of donating are better
About.com published a good article on fees, Credit Card Processing for Nonprofits.
Giving online is easy and not always cheap
add and vote your favorites up
Online intermediaries raise awareness and simplify donating; but, sometimes they can cost a lot without being upfront, like the 20% eBay Giving Works charges on small amounts.
Remember, the fees below must cover credit card fees banks charge (2% – 5%) and some or all of the cost of developing and sustaining these online tools, some quite powerful.
1
Network for Good
allows you cover the card transaction fee when donating to any of over a million charities, fee is 4.75% for cards and USD 10 for checks0 points
2
Firstgiving
turn what you enjoy into a fundraising event, fee is 7.35%0 points
3
GiveMeaning
start a charitable project and raise funds or donate to someone else's project, all fees covered by corporate sponsors0 points
4
ChangingThePresent
donations as gifts with a social-network twist, fee is 3% plus USD 0.30 per donation0 points
5
eBay Giving Works
donate some or all of an eBay sale to charity, fee depends on sale amount, 20% - %3.0 points
Volunteers and organizations can find each other online
- VolunteerMatch
- search and matching tool for volunteers and organizations in need
- Network for Good
- also has search tools for volunteering
What about microcredit?
Organizations involved in microcredit, lending to the poor, are not charities. But, for those including supporting human rights and eliminating poverty in their goals, microcredit is essential to understand. There are microfinance institutions that lend directly to the poor and support organizations that establish and support microfinance institutions. Microfinance institutions
…and their support organizations
- ACCION International
- provides microcredit directly and support services to other microfinance institutions
- Grameen Foundation
- US organization that supports microfinance institutions globally
- Grameen Bank
- media (and Nobel) favorite bank for the poor
- Kiva
- online users review, fund, and assume the risk of microloans through other microfinance institutions globally
- MIX Market
- Detailed information on microfinance institutions and partners.
- MicroRate
- provides free ratings and sells analysis of microfinance institutions for USD 150 – 1000.
More lenses to learn from
add your own lense and vote your favorites up
1
The 59 Smartest Orgs Online
charities chosen by GetActive, NetSquared and Squidoo for excellent online storytelling and donor collaboration—not for mission effectiveness0 points
2
Microfinance - Empowering the world's poorest people
from the Grameen Foundation0 points
3
Charity Giving
lens to help people learn the ins and outs of charity giving […] An educated giver is a better giver0 points
4
Things I Love About Volunteering
the five major reasons why Roger Carr chose to volunteer0 points
5
How to Give from Your Home
guide to giving in-kind0 points
... and books to learn from
add what you've read and enjoyed and vote your favorites up
1
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt
short, occasionally antique, engaging, and timeless explanation of economics through examples of folly0 points
2
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus
engaging narrative history of the Grameen organizations.0 points
Which do I support?
- Médecins Sans Frontiès
- They put people back together in the toughest spots, stay neutral under fire, and keep the money tight enough for four stars from Charity Navigator. Outstanding work.
- Ashoka
- It’s about developing societies so they don’t need charities in the first place. Four stars.
- National Public Radio
- I wouldn’ know about MSF—or much about current events—if not for them. Clear information is the first step on any road. Four stars.
- ACCION International
- I'm not ‘all in’ on microcredit yet, but these folks seem to have their act together more than most. Four stars.
- Kiva
- I don’t have a rational case for Kiva—it’s not the most effective approach—but it’s fun and interesting; a welcome break from the colder economics. Only a brief overview from GuideStar available.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. by yurigadow
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