I have been catching Larry and Frances Jones on TV for a while now and last night was heartbroken when the entire show was about "Abandoned Baby Center" in Kenya. I could not believe these tiny babies being left to die alone. In your opinion, what are the best charities to donate to? I am not talking about a lot of money, but say $10 or so donations. I feel for the homeless and give a dollar here and there (and boy oh boy, New York City has tons of homeless out there). There are homeless shelters in NYC (St. Francis shelter in PA is another one). Do you give to charities? Is there an unbiased list of reputable charities??? thanks everyone

-- maryann (maryann.parker@citigroup.com), June 30, 2003

Answers

This link may be of some benefit when trying to guage how much of your money will go to the cause, as opposed to admin costs.

http://www.wfnet.org/news/story.php?story_id=137

I think a lot of charities/non-profits have become businesses instead, and would rather help out someone I know directly that really needs help as opposed to helping an organization stay in business. I like to know salaries. When they won't tell me, or they seem high relative to skills required, no donation.

Like helping the homeless, for example. Food or shelter is one thing, but money, forget it. All too often you see signs saying "will work for food", but the people won't, not really, and there are so many organizations helping with basic needs that there is no need in this country (USA) at least for people to be begging on the street (and not paying taxes on any income (which it is) being collected.

It's a lot harder to judge whether to donate to orgs like the one you mention, because there are different costs involved (and in most 3rd world countries, probably bribes as part of just being allowed to come in and help). We can't even get our taxpayer- supported aid through unscathed in many instances....

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), June 30, 2003.

Maryann, check out www.give.org. This is a site set up by the Better Business Bureau that lists all charities and breaks down percentagewise where all the money goes. All of the Catholic charities allocate most of their money to their work.

Pax et Bonum.

Thomas

-- Thomas (tcdzomba@excite.com), June 30, 2003.

Although remember, Catholic Charities (to use one example, St. Vincent de Paul would be another) scores low in admin costs because they are in reality supported by the Church (through collections, etc.). It wouldn't be quite fair to rate them against a stand-alone charity for efficiency without taking that into account.

But I think that all churches and charities should have open records. The donating public should know how much each employee makes and why (and imho, "living wage" nonsense doesn't apply here). Unless there are special skills involved, instead of wages, maybe stipends or direct costs reimbursed or cheap group healthcare rates. In most cases, no more than state minimum wage should be paid. It is appalling how much some heads of charities make, not to mention the perks.

I think a lot of people have become wary of giving to the big organizations because of the Red Cross problem after Sept. ll.

Maryann, another thing you want to do is when you donate, tell the charity up front that you only want ONE solicitation (reminder) per year. Any more and there will be no more donations from you. The link I posted above gets into that--it costs money to send out all the solicitations.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), July 01, 2003.

I am a researcher and after checking out Abandoned Baby Center and Feed The Children, liked the low budget for ads/TV promo spots/ and fundraising. The other fact I liked: Feed The Children work with porduce growers to give excess to the USA food pantry groups, with very low budget for truck services. They have the yearly tax report online, it is impressive.

I send the Abandoned Baby Center a $9.00 check and most of it used for actual food/supplies. That I liked! Other groups I have researched use 20% to 40% of a donation for ad campaigns, or fundraising staff. I know a staff is needed but feel I'd rather donate where the money will be stretched further. You can't go wrong to donate to Feed the Children or the Abandoned Baby Center!

http://www.feedthechildren.co.uk/pages/our_work_childrens_stories.htm

http://www.feedthechildren.org/abc_album.pdf

Hope this helps... Crystal

PS The yearly fiscal report is available on the Feed the Children website.

-- Crystal Jensen (CrystalJ@usa.com), November 05, 2003.