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Here's something we haven't talked about in a thousand years — which charities do you give to, and why? How do you research and determine which charities are good or best when choosing between options? Do you have pet causes, are you more of a generalist, or do you just give to whatever your friends are fundraising for? Do you have a set amount that you give away every year?
Psst: We’ve previously talked about how to help charities by donating time, how to get on a board, charitable giving for young professionals, and how to deal with pressure to donate money at the office.
For my $.02, we could be a lot more charitable than we are — we do not have a set percentage of our income that we set aside for charity, for example, and we don't have a specific dollar amount “target.” I almost always donate something if there's an organization I've given to before and there's a match of some sort, and I try to regularly donate to friends' causes that are near and dear to them.
In terms of how to find a good charity, I tend to like Charity Navigator for research because it's so easy. Charity Navigator looks at organizations' financial health, accountability, and transparency, and assign each one a numerical score and star rating. If their ranking is too low for any particular charity, I know to look closer or donate elsewhere.
In addition to being able to easily keep track of what charities you've given to, another HUGE benefit of Charity Navigator, for me at least, is that you can give anonymously. I'm one of those people who is actively annoyed if I get a zillion emails, calls, and mailings from charities (don't send me a free book! put the damn money towards the charity!), and being anonymous sidesteps that.
I'm also a big fan of the Donors Choose website — you can directly help teachers who need things for their classrooms, and you can search by locale or by “issue,” such as sensory-friendly lighting.
Finally, yes, in other years I've gone to fundraisers — it's a fun night with friends, and I've made some questionable auction purchases because they're “for charity.”
Readers, how about you — which charities do you give to and why? What are your best tips on how to find a good charity?
Stock photo via Deposit Photos / rozelt.
CountC
Planned Parenthood – to continue to provide women with access to healthcare
Local food bank – to help those in my community who may be struggling
Local bat rescue/rehab group – I love bats and they are important for our ecosystem
Other local animal rescue groups – I love animals generally
I don’t have any tips on how to find a good charity because I donate to what I want without much research. My focus is mostly on local groups that I either have interacted with personally or I know about through a volunteer, so that helps with my confidence in where my money is going.
BeenThatGuy
Local food pantries were my charity of choice in 2020 and will continue to be in 2021. About 1 in 7 Americans rely on food banks to eat. That is both staggering and heartbreaking.
Anonymous
Local food bank, small scholarship for a low-income student program at my alma mater, a women’s domestic violence shelter in my area, pro-choice organizations, and climate change groups. I used to support Doctors without Borders and still believe in their work very strongly, but they have much more money to work with than other groups already. I no longer give money to the ACLU or Southern Poverty Law Center because I don’t like some of their policies these days, although I’m grateful for some of the good work they’ve done in the past.
Hildy J.
I started giving to a local food bank this year, as well. I’ve been a long-time monthly donor to a local public radio station which also serves as a cultural institution. Previously, I donated to a local (but not to me) housing counseling center, which helps people who might not otherwise achieve homeownership. What I like to do is set a relatively small starting monthly donation and then every time the public radio station has a pledge drive I either up my monthly donation by a small amount or make a one-time contribution. That way it creeps up over time. I’ll probably do something similar with the food bank.
And it goes without saying that it’s always worth checking to see if your employer will match.
CountC
+1 to your last sentence. The company I work for will match up to $10k (yes $10k!!!) per employee each year.
Anonymous
I forgot about the culture things! (commented below for other charities) I guess I don’t think about them as charities, but yeah, indie theatre and comedy! And my favorite pub (closed for lockdown where I live). :)
Anonymous
I donate to both farm animal and pet rescues, as well as activist and anti ag-gag organizations. None of my money goes directly to human causes.
Anon
My salary is teeny-tiny compared to everyone else here, but I try to give as much as I can. I mostly give to animal causes like local rescues or fundraising campaigns for dogs who need emergency surgery, etc. I also gave to my local food bank last year and will continue to do so.
I actually work in the non-profit sector, so I have a good idea of what charities are heavily funded by major corporations/government (and not relying on small individual donors like me). Your money always goes further at the grassroots level.
Formerly Lilly
On the regular – Southern Poverty Law Center, local library and humane association, and Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.
Reasons: I believe that SPLC does important, good work. The rest: dogs and books.
Also give politically at will.
Anonymous
Yes! Love old friends ❤️❤️❤️ My husband took me to visit there as a surprise when we went to Nashville for an anniversary weekend and they do such great work
B
Yes! Love old friends ! My husband took me there to visit as a surprise while we were on an anniversary weekend in Nashville. They do great work!
IL
A sizeable chunk of my so-called charitable spending is on the news: local paper (physical), regional paper (online), national paper (online), PBS, public radio, the New Yorker, and The Economist. All of them are struggling to some degree, and I shudder to think what the past four years would have been like without a functioning press corps. It’s well over $1,000 a year, so it warrants a line in the budget.
Otherwise, I try to give locally. I think the dollars go further that way.
Lobby-est
Ohh that’s a great answer. Yes to a great local press.
Anon
I give monthly to the charities named in my grandparents’ obituaries; it’s a nice way to still feel connected to them.
I also give monthly to the Red Cross (both American and International; my whole career has been in disaster relief so I support that with my giving as well. I’m aware that they’re not perfect, but it is the best choice), the Nature Conservancy, and a local food bank.
I give annually to a few other charities (two local trail networks/conservation networks, another local food bank, and then both my high school and college – to the scholarships that I had when I attended… my college scholarship let me go abroad which was life changing in terms of personal growth and because it directly helped me land my first job)
Anon
The Grey Muzzle Organization, to improve the lives of at-risk senior dogs in animal shelters, rescues, sanctuaries, and other nonprofits. https://www.greymuzzle.org/about-us/meet-the-dogs
And the Rotary Foundation, and a local pantry for those in need during the pandemic (including those hesitant to come forward)…and we also give to UNHCR and the ASPCA.
No Face
Church, food bank, legal services organization, ministry for teen moms
Anon
The rescues from which we got our cats and PP get money.
Local TNR initiatives get a lot of my time, and I also specialize in singleton fostering. In non-Covid times, I do rescue transport as well.
Anon
I have monthly donations set up to WWF, NRDC, Planned Parenthood and ACLU. I donated to political candidates in 2020 and I will usually throw $25 at any friend or acquaintance who is fund-raising, assuming I’m not morally opposed to the cause. I’ve been flamed for this before (in two different, basically opposite, ways) but our charitable donations are relatively small compared to our salaries and we plan to do most of our charitable giving through our estate. Women in my family live a long time so I want to make sure I’m financially secure in retirement, but I have no intention of making my kids millionaires when I die and beyond putting them through school and maybe setting up an education fund for grandkids if they exist, I would rather leave money to charity than to my kids.
Anon
Estate gifts make a huge impact! No flame here, just love. As someone that is the estate planning contact for a nonprofit that benefits greatly from these kinds of gifts, I encourage you to share your intent with the organization(s) if you’re comfortable (especially if small/local). Even if you want to remain anonymous and not receive recognition, it means the world to gift officers like me to have the chance to thank you during your lifetime. We receive so many gifts after the fact that are incredible and it breaks my heart to have missed the opportunity to express gratitude.
Sloan Sabbith
Cystic fibrosis foundation, because its support of drug development the reason I’m not dead or quickly on my way to that end and I appreciate that. Also other cystic fibrosis related charities.
Legal aid, especially smaller non-LSC funded organizations.
Local newspapers and media
Around Christmas, I donate to the local holiday drives put on by both my hometown paper and the Seattle Times.
Anon
TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation and Trevor Project because LGBT+ youth deserve support.
The rest goes to individuals via gofundme for medical or pet needs or I “donate” an amount to friends in need. For example, I have a friend who is a single mom earning minimum wage. I have given her a big gift card to a store that sells kids items so she can give them a holiday that she wants as my gift to her is her being able to do that for her kids in ways she couldn’t otherwise. I also give more than asked for friends’ kids who do school fundraisers.
This lets me give to a couple of official charities and help those in need as they need in a more direct way.
Anonymous
Médecins Sans Frontières – health care to vulnerable women in dangerous situations all over the world, including safe abortions, food services to local homeless, displaced and addicts and Centre Point London – help of all kinds to homeless young people in London.
C
Planned Parenthood
Nature Conservancy
NPR (from my college town which does not get as much money as the local NPR for me now)
Local food bank
I have given to: doctors without borders, SPLC, National Women’s Law Center, NOW, local library foundation
shortperson
i give the most to my public high school’s foundation which has an annual campaign with a goal of $30k total. much more inspiring to give to than my ivy college and law school.
Kara
Local food banks, bail funds, Fair Fight (political), Local PBS affiliate, local journalism and I have lately been trying to volunteer a bit of time with legal nonprofits.
bellatrix
Some giving through my church. Occasional donations to my university, especially to benefit the programs and student orgs I was involved in while there. Recurring donations to NPR, ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center. Local food banks (I need to make that a recurring donation, because it’s not like the need is going away). In 2020 I gave to several bail funds/mutual aid groups. And I regularly donate to an org that provides grief counseling for kids, because I have a family member whose life would have been changed for the better if she’d been given that support ~60 years ago.
Anon
-PP Affiliate monthly: we chose one that is not local to us, but that provides care in a *terrible* policy/political environment–we’ll sometimes make ad-hoc gifts to other affiliates
-RAICES monthly: Started giving when the Trump family separation policy was in the news, and it felt important to continue supporting.
-Local NPR station monthly: at a smaller amount than the two above, but I just love NPR.
-Local housing nonprofit monthly: because the government should fix the conditions that lead to houselessness, but until then it’s up to communities.
-Abortion funds monthly: for many reasons, a big one being that many insurance plans don’t cover abortion care, and I know folks personally who have needed help affording an abortion. Funds are very grassroots-driven and often volunteer-led and I love them.
We aim to give at least 5% of our annual income, and we’ll usually also donate ad hoc to charitable or political orgs or candidates throughout the year.
Anon
I work at RAICES! Thank you so much for your monthly gift!! We still very much need help even though we aren’t in the news like a few years ago. There’s 300-400 children arriving at the border unaccompanied every day. The humanitarian crisis very much is not over, especially with a federal judge blocking Biden’s 100-day pause on deportations.
Louise
Dress for Success. I’ve been an advocate of the organization since it started, and now that I’m able, regularly donate. I was also a regular volunteer pre-covid.