For Those Who Do Plan to Donate, Charity Navigator Offers Tips to Get the Biggest Bang for Their Buck
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Glen Rock, N.J. – America’s charities, which receive a significant portion of their annual contributions during the holiday giving season, will be heartened to know that donors who gave last year-end plan to give again this year-end. The recent survey about year-end giving by Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities, also found that the majority of donors (57%) expect to give at the same level as they did last year. Donors were most interested in supporting Human Services charities, those that help the less fortunate such as food banks and homeless shelters, this holiday season.
For those planning to give this holiday season, Charity Navigator offers the following tips to help ensure that your gifts go to high-performing charities:
Use Charity Navigator’s expanded ratings to gain more knowledge to do more good: Charity Navigator’s newly expanded charity analysis rates a charity’s Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency. It is important to seek out fiscally responsible charities as they are more efficient with donations and have greater flexibility to pursue their goals. And charities that follow good governance and transparency practices are less likely to engage in unethical or irresponsible activities. So, the risk that such charities would misuse donations is lower than for charities that don’t adopt such practices.
Dig beyond storytelling to look for evidence of results: Heartwarming stories often motivate donors to give. But smart donors look beyond inspirational anecdotes and seek out evidence of the overall results of a charity’s work. You can learn about a charity’s results by reviewing its website and/or talking with staff. They should be able to tell you more than just the number of activities or people served and speak to the quality and depth of their results (for example, not just whether someone got a job but for how long) as well as their capacity to continue to get these results. This is critical step, after all, the charity’s ability to bring about long lasting and meaningful change in the world should be the key reason for your donation.
Check the charity’s programs to ensure its efforts truly match your philanthropic passions: There are a lot of misconceptions among donors about the programs and services that their donations fund. For example, a donor might want to help fund a cure for cancer. The donor selects and funds a charity and then is dismayed to find out that the charity’s programs have nothing to do with research for a cure, but are instead focused on advocating for legislation to pay for patient’s care. This common mistake is easily remedied by doing a little bit of research before writing that check. To ensure that the charity’s work is aligned with your philanthropic interests, visit the charity’s website, check its Form 990 or call their office to learn about their primary programs and services.
Skip the gala and write a check: Special events, such as galas and golf outings, are notoriously inefficient ways to raise money for a charity. Not only are these events outright costly (invitations, catering, entertainment and so on), but planning a fancy ball often diverts staff time away from the charity’s mission. So if you really want to help fund a charity’s operations, then stay home, reheat your leftovers and write a big check directly to the charity.
“Despite the ongoing recession, we’re optimistic about this year-end giving season being at least equal to last year,” said Ken Berger, President & CEO of Charity Navigator. “We believe that there is a correlation between how much a donor gives and the donor’s confidence in the charity’s ability to accomplish great things. By accessing our newly expanded analysis, donors can readily determine which charities are both Financially Healthy and have a strong commitment to being Accountable & Transparent, and thereby have more confidence in their charitable choices this holiday season.”
Charity Navigator is best known for its ratings, accessible at no charge at www.charitynavigator.org, of the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of more than 5,000 of America’s best-known charities. Charity Navigator’s website offers more details on the year-end giving survey and complementary tools to help donors make informed choices about where their contributions will be used most effectively this holiday season. Visit the guide at: www.charitynavigator.org/holiday.
About Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org)
Charity Navigator is the largest charity evaluator in America and its website attracts more visitors than all other charity rating groups combined. The organization helps guide intelligent giving by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of over 5,000 charities. Charity Navigator accepts no advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates, ensuring unbiased evaluations, nor does it charge the public for this trusted data. As a result, Charity Navigator, a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization itself, depends on support from individuals, corporations and foundations that believe it provides a much-needed service to America’s charitable givers. Charity Navigator, can be reached directly by telephone at (201) 818-1288, or by mail at 139 Harristown Road, Suite 201, Glen Rock, N.J., 07452.
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