#204 - Finding Your Perfect Match

Where the Smart Money Goes When It Comes To Giving

Here is the second tip in a series of installments related to The Giving Challenge that's happening here at the House of Green. It's not too late to sign up, just leave a comment with your name and site if you want to join!

Want to give a little green for good? That's fan-doodley-tastic! But before you whip out that checkbook and start writing down numbers, do a little number reading. Make sure that charity you're about to bestow your gift upon is really worthy of your funds.

Well that sounds harsh, doesn't it? Giving is supposed to be about community, sharing, warm fuzzies and all that mushy stuff. It's something we do because, in our heart, we know it is right. We like the feeling we get when we give to a worthy cause. Sometimes a vivid description of starving children is told... sometimes a picture of a dying bird caught in an oil slick. How can you not just fork your wallet over to the all those nice people who are trying to fight the injustices of the world?

Let's start with:

1. Just because they're nice doesn't mean they're smart.
2. And it also doesn't mean they're entirely altruistic.

The directors of the organization may be so messed up that they blew all their donations on legal fees and new computers when it should have been spent on food for the starving kids. Or maybe they spent most of the donations on their own inflated, executive-style salaries and then used the ten dollars leftover to buy a bottle of Palmolive. The bottom line is, if you want to get the most bang for your buck out of your charitable donations, you need to do a little homework.

You might want to make your first stop on this fact-checking tour be the Network for Good website. It is a wealth of information regarding thousands upon thousands of charities. It is very, very user-friendly. You can find a charity simply by typing in a couple of keywords and selecting whether you want to donate or volunteer (or both). If you want, you can even narrow your search by city and state.

For instance, I typed in "Environment", selected both 'donate' and 'volunteer', then narrowed my search to Virginia. I was offered 984 possibilities for donations and 56 opportunities for volunteering. WOW! But it gets even better. If I click on any of these charities, I'm taken to a page where I can either make a donation or learn more about the charity in question. By clicking on the View Full Report, I'm able to learn a great deal about the organization.

Once I open the report, I am able to see their Missions, Programs, Government Codes, Goals and Results, as well as their most recent published financial data. Now, you can learn a lot about their ideals and such in the former areas, but the latter part? Them thar numbers? Well, they just don't lie. You can see exactly how much money they bring in and how it is spent. You want to see expenses that show a higher proportion of Program Services to Administration and Other. In fact, to be considered a successful charity, the ratio should be at least 4:1. The only time this should be lower is during the first few years of startup, which is when most funds are spent on building the infrastructure of the organization.

If you want to dig even deeper into a particular charity's finances, you can also check out their IRS form 990, filed annually by all registered US charities and available online at Guidestar.org. For you fellow Mathletes and Tax Nerds, this is where you'll find the really juicy stuff, like the salaries of the highest paid employees and the independent contractors they hire for professional services. Good stuff.

So I guess what I'm saying is that finding a good charity is like finding a good husband. Sure, you may first be attracted by a big sob story or just a general feeling of pity. But before you take that stroll down the aisle, a smart woman will run a credit check on him to make sure he knows his debits and credits from his franks and beans.