What Charities do you like to give to?

Thanks for this info.

5 major charities are off my list.

I'm happy to see Veterans and ST. Jude and the others are the good people of charities.

 

As the Executive Director of a small, local nonprofit that deals with bikes & childhood obesity (Off The Front for those interested), I thought I’d weigh in on the conversation from a different perspective.

First off, let me say, i too am socked at some of the outrageous salaries these non-profit execs are paid. People need to make a living and are entitled to be compensated for their skills, experience, etc... but some of those salaries are crazy.

However, to swing the pendulum to the other extreme is unhelpful imho. To ask an organization to be run by a skilled individual for little or no compensation is unfair (would any of you leave your current job for that kind of offer- even for a cause you feel is extremely worthwhile?) We would never ask that of a CEO of a business. There is certainly a balance somewhere between no compensation & crazy compensation, but i wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket when determining where to give my money.

I'd also push on the notion that the administrative vs. actual program expenses % is the best way to measure whether your hard earned dollar should be given to said charity. I too would not give my $ to an org that uses it pay for abnormally high admin costs. There is, however, a reasonable cost to running a charitable foundation just like a business- people, insurance, facilities, etc.. all cost $$. It seems that we tend to place different expectations on non-profits vs. for profits in this area. (Dan Pallotta did a great TED talk on this issue).

Maybe instead of asking how frugal an organization can be with our $, we should ask how much impact they are making with it. Many of the organizations listed above are doing just that & I encourage you to keep supporting them!

For full disclosure, in my organization there is about a 50/50 breakdown for admin costs vs. actual program expenses & my staff is paid far less than the national average.

 

It's not a charity, but I am part of a non-profit 501c organization..Minute Man Dart League (www.mmdl.org). We do get paid, but end of the day I make about 8-9 bucks an hour. There are a few perks like free smartphone. I do love the game and have also done 2-3 yrs unpaid as an assistant. Some have said we shouldn't get paid, the majority who have spoke said we should make more. I asked one fellow who was adamant there should be no pay if he would give up 100 hours plus per season (2 a year), spend $30 in fuel once a month to go to a meeting, and pay his own phone bill to do it. He said hell no. Answered that question for me..

Myself, I support the Veterans (donate clothes and household goods). I used to donate to food pantries but some of the abuses stopped that. Instead, I will give a friend who is unemployed and a fulltime student money here and there to buy food. I know that person will buy staple food and not anything extravagant.

I have also donated to Alzheimer's research, a close to home thing for me.

 

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North American Man Boy Love Association(for pedophile) There's parody episode on South Park lol.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s04e06-cartman-joins-nambla

 

I don't give to random charities. I give to random people. Makes it much more personal.

Case in point

 

1. Coats 4 Kids
2. Sleepy Head Beds
3. Make a Wish

 

I think that chart looks a little politically motivated. I give to United Way every year for 20+ years. They use less than 12% for administration from donations. A lot of their admin costs are actually paid by large corporations. I know UPS pays a big chunk to cover admin costs locally, in fact United Way does tons of great things locally. I'm not so pleased that the guy at the top makes over a million a year, but I understand that to have the highest quLity admin, you must pay comparable wages. I've met hundreds of people that have needed help from the groups that united way funds. I also like that United Way allows me to decide where the money goes, I can actually pick the causes that my money goes directly to, and I know that United Way monitors the charities to make sure they spend the money wisely.
What that chart failed to show was how many charities that claim to help veterans are just scams, where 85-99% of donations go to admin costs.