In the words of Dickens’ Christmas Present, “Mankind is your business.”With the crisis in Japan and the death toll rising, I thought my readers might be interested to know what they can do to help. Nobody likes their charitble dollars hijacked. If you want to give but want to get the most bang for your buck, there is a great website called Charity navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.alpha<r=L. This website tells what part of the pie those running the charity take, what their overhead costs are and how much they spend on fundraising per dollar donated.
This site is easy to navigate and you can use their A-Z file to look up the non-profit you’re interested in. Of course the organization must supply the information and some don’t. You can usually look up the information on the organization’s web site if it’s not given on Charity Navigator. If you can’t find the info. on either site, I’d be shy about giving anything.
An interesting note, every year I get called by the Fraternal orders of this or that. One year I said I’d donate if I thought it was worthwhile after I saw a list of how they spent donations. It turned out that the one I checked out is not even a charitble organization. The donations are not tax deductible. They were using the battered women’s shelter to get people to send money, but that year less than 3% went to the battered women’s shelter and the rest went to fund raising, food and drink for their meetings and the cost of parties. Other years they’ve used foster care programs etc. But I digress.
The best of the best (in my opinion) is the LDS Humanitarian Fund. Every penny you give goes to buy humanitarian aid. All the overhead costs of transportation, labor, etc is paid through the tithing donations to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (A completely separate and distinct fund) You don’t have to be Mormon to donate to this charity and it’s the most direct way to buy something a catastrophy victim needs. They’re often one of the very earliest on the scenes of disaster and the volunteers are already organized. The link is http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/ There are other excellent ways to help the suffering, (you know, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, succor the orphans and widows).Anyone can find a way to help in the particular way that suits them. My hope is that we’ll do our best to do what we can.
This site is easy to navigate and you can use their A-Z file to look up the non-profit you’re interested in. Of course the organization must supply the information and some don’t. You can usually look up the information on the organization’s web site if it’s not given on Charity Navigator. If you can’t find the info. on either site, I’d be shy about giving anything.
An interesting note, every year I get called by the Fraternal orders of this or that. One year I said I’d donate if I thought it was worthwhile after I saw a list of how they spent donations. It turned out that the one I checked out is not even a charitble organization. The donations are not tax deductible. They were using the battered women’s shelter to get people to send money, but that year less than 3% went to the battered women’s shelter and the rest went to fund raising, food and drink for their meetings and the cost of parties. Other years they’ve used foster care programs etc. But I digress.
The best of the best (in my opinion) is the LDS Humanitarian Fund. Every penny you give goes to buy humanitarian aid. All the overhead costs of transportation, labor, etc is paid through the tithing donations to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (A completely separate and distinct fund) You don’t have to be Mormon to donate to this charity and it’s the most direct way to buy something a catastrophy victim needs. They’re often one of the very earliest on the scenes of disaster and the volunteers are already organized. The link is http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/ There are other excellent ways to help the suffering, (you know, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, succor the orphans and widows).Anyone can find a way to help in the particular way that suits them. My hope is that we’ll do our best to do what we can.
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