It’s the season when people make the most charitable donations. Some suggest that 30% of all donations are made in December, with almost 12% donated in the last 3 days of the year!
By considering a few important factors, you can ensure your donation has the GREATEST IMPACT possible.
Before donating to an organization, consider:
- How aligned are you with their mission?
- How do you know they are accomplishing their mission?
- How much of your donation is going to programs or offerings, versus overhead or fundraising costs?
- What impact have they had in the past, and what impact do they measure and report?
The following are particularly important for community development organizations:
- Do their programs address real community needs?
- Do their programs “give a fish” or “teach to fish” – giving a handout or empowering, building capacity and creating opportunities?
- Do their programs have a pathway to sustainability?
Finally, how much impact is created with your dollar? Are your donation dollars making the biggest impact they can for the mission you care about?
For example, $40,000 can:
- Give a seeing eye dog to one blind person in the US, or
- Give 8,000 blindness-curing surgeries to people in the developing world.
If you care about solving blindness, donating to the latter organization makes a larger impact. HAPPY GIVING!
Read more:
- Celebrated Charities We Don’t Recommend Giving to (Heifer International or Oxfam), GiveWell.org
- Are Nonprofits Getting in the Way of Social Change?, Stanford Social Innovation Review
- How to Evaluate a Charity, Forbes