3xM-International
Sharing what you have makes you feel good.
Years ago my husband and I gave monthly donations to two organizations. Sadly, we discovered that WAAAAAY too much of the money being donated went to the top leadership and other administrative costs, rather than to the people who needed the donations. We became cynical.
Lately I’ve found some tools that allow you to check out charities, illuminating their worth either by grades, by accreditation, or by stars. You can find out what percentage of the money received goes to the actual people for which the charity was founded, as opposed to salary for the leader of the organization and other administrative costs. I found three of these services on the net: Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, and BBB Wise Giving Alliance. I personally found Charity Navigator the easiest to use, providing a list of 4 Star Charities. Charity Watch was second. It looked like you had to join the site at first, but after looking around, I found a list that provided ‘grades’ for many of the charities I was researching. BBB Wise Giving Alliance ranked third, as far as I’m concerned. I only found one of the charities I was interested in that was ‘accredited.’ Mostly, they said that the charity hadn’t filled out the paperwork to be listed.
If you try to choose charities by name, you’re likely to be disappointed, as we were years ago, by the money not being used wisely, or being used to line someone’s pocket, or even an actual scam. If the charity is considered good by two of the three services, you can be sure that your money is going to the people you’d like to help.
I spent some time researching this morning, coming up with 5 charities I thought deserved our money. I took the list and talked them over with my husband. He chose two, and I arranged for monthly donations to each of them. Locally we do what we can to help our local library and the Veterans Thrift Store – formally called Disabled Veterans Town. We love to choose a child each year from the Salvation Army Christmas Tree, taking their list and buying as many things from it as we can, imagining a sweet, delighted child on Christmas morning. :0) We contribute on a sporadic basis to political organizations and candidates, but mainly give them a piece of our minds….
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