Open Thread: Charitable Giving

139 Comments

1. on % of giving, I guess it would help if we knew whether we are talking about gross income or take-home pay. I am in the 1-2% of gross pay status.

   I do give to my undergrad and law schools (both private) – so that they can help a middle-class kid like I was attend a school that would otherwise be out of reach. I donate gifts to the various charities of friends who have had deaths in the family (~$50-100). I’ve started donating to a no-kill shelter when close friends have pets who die (~$20-25). I’m a partner whose firm automatically donates part of my compensation to United Way – sometimes I give extra to meet a certain giving level, but did not do that this year (times are tight). I do try to direct it to a specific group I’m familiar with. As for donating strategically, I will give to certain firm-sponsored programs or to assist another attorney raising money for a cause. I do participate in several races during the year and had not really been counting that money as a donation, but in some instances I can.

   I save my biggest donation for a local after-school program whose board I used to chair. It is a cause near and dear to my heart. For those who don’t like to donate to “admin,” I would like to challenge that notion – there has to be some admin to run the organization. and as someone noted, most grants can only be used for specific programs. so individual donations are the absolute life-blood to keep some organizations, particularly smaller, grass-roots ones, going. I agree the admin should not be disproportionate and go to a fancy building or big salaries. But most non-profit staff are already sacrificing a lot to work there. I know my small program is almost always struggling to survive, and only because the director is so committed has she stuck around – sometimes without pay for long stretches. They have enough money for programs – but not enough for someone to administer and run them. Just food for thought!

2. We give very little during the year. However, since we don’t have children, most of our estate will go to charity (either science education or animals) in our wills. Pretty sure there will still be plenty of money needed in those areas by the time we die.

   1. Should add, I’m a little underemployed this year (contracts thin on the ground just now) and have 4 separate charity gigs. Does me good to have some structure to my week, fall into depression otherwise.

3. This is a great topic. It’s great to see that people give so much!

   I’m a student and unfortunately, my husband isn’t very charitably inclined. I give $10 a month to NPR, and assorted and sundry donations here and there. I also try to bake something for a bake sale or a buy a toy for a drive. And anything breast cancer related gets me too, because both of my grandmothers had it. When I graduate and make the big money in the government/public sector job, I hope donate a lot more.

4. I give about $1500 a year in monetary donations, including tithes to my church and donations to local charities. In addition to this, my husband tithes and donates as well. I am aiming to give more and more each year. My goal is to get to a point where I am giving at least 10% of my income to our church which has a lot of missions – both local and international.

5. Giving to charities is a great gift for those difficult teenagers in your life. I give my nieces gifts where they are “saving” a certain animal, the ocean, whatever, and the charity will send them a certificate and a small token. They love it, and don’t have to bother returning whatever uncool gift I might get them otherwise.

   I get my kids involved in our charity choices. I let them each pick a charity for our annual campaign, and help them research ideas. It’s interesting to see their choices — organizations that buy books for children, helping the disabled, and environmental organizations are on the top of their lists.

6. I’m with the feds and make around $165K per year. I donate about 6% of my income to Physicians without Borders, our local homeless shelter, and a mid-East charity that donates wheelchairs to children.

   I also give cash freely to homeless people, even those who appear to be alcoholics or drug users. My sister is a mentally-ill alcoholic mostly homeless person who always gives part of what I send her to other homeless. If she can, I can. She tells me she chews grass to clean her breath and that it is not fun to sleep on the sidewalks. I’ve dispensed with being judgmental about shaky-looking homeless folk.

   On another note, I’m really shocked that so many people contribute to their churches. It seems to me churches pretty much use money to support themselves and people who think like they do. In a million years, I’d never contribute to my law school or undergraduate school, but the reasons offered by those who do are sensible. Churches? Nope.

   1. But, that’s exactly why I give to my church – because if the people that go there don’t support it, they wouldn’t exist. Rather, I should say that I think that’s why followers of Jesus are asked to do so in the Bible, because we know that no one else is giving churches money to operate; a church’s income comes from its members. Surely people NOT going to church aren’t going to be writing those checks… right? One other thing to keep in mind is that in the very nature of being a church, part -if not most- of the expenses that are being paid are supporting missionaries, running community services programs, etc… as well as supporting outside organizations. It’s not like the income is paying for the church staff to sit around and have spa weekends or something.

      1. My church supports a food bank, a program for homeless people so families will not be split up and have to go to different shelters, gives supplies to an economically disadvantaged public school, and strongly advocates for equal marriage rights regardless of sexual orientation, among many other causes. They do it all without regard to the religious orientation of the charity recipients and without making them listen to sermons. That’s why I go there and why I give. The fact that it is a place of peace and spiritual rejuvenation for me and a place to worship with others is also important, but I wouldn’t give as much if my church was not out there everyday helping the community. And not just “others who think like they do.” That’s pretty inflammatory.

   2. When I was religious (Catholic) I did the accounting for the Catholic church near my undergrad. A lot does go for general operating expenses – electric, living stipends for the two priests (very low – vow of poverty and all that), supplies (wine, wafers, oils, incense, flowers) for mass. However a lot goes for missions and outreach around the relatively large city it was in, programs for the poor, etc. If you’re religious and keeping your church running and being able to have mass/service with everything that goes with it (for Catholics, mass isn’t mass without wine and wafers for communion) is important, then why shouldn’t you give to your church? If you’re not religious or have a problem with religion, on the other hand, of course it makes more sense to give to an organization that more directly addresses the poor, etc.

      I might add that the church I worked at still wasn’t able to cover operating expenses (and wasn’t willing to substantially reduce their mission/anti-poverty work). Several months into the recession, they had to lay off my successor (a part-time student job), the receptionist, and the business manager (full-time with benefits). The business manager has cancer, hasn’t been able to get another job, and his COBRA coverage is about to run out. The church simply couldn’t afford to pay him and it couldn’t very well fire the priests.

      My point is don’t make assumptions about how churches are run and what their operating priorities are. (And I am no longer Catholic and would definitely not be contributing to religion, but I still send a little to that church each month out of concern.)

   3. What an absurd thing to say. My little church in my little city does so much good for those in and out of the church. As an example, last year we helped 189 families/individuals that would have fallen through the cracks with rent, security deposits, food, utility bills, hotel rooms for homeless people and other miscellaneous items. The church spent over $40,000 on this. In addition we support the local homeless shelter, run a “store” for new moms struggling to make ends meet, support Habitat for Humanity, and make regular donations to Catholic Relief Services.

   4. Most [Protestant] churches must have their budgets approved by the congregation. the congregation sees line by line where their money is being spent: paying health benefits & living wages to the janitor, keeping the lights on and other bills paid, supporting education and homeless outreach programs, etc., etc. I’d certainly be wary if there weren’t that level of transparency/accountability. Also, we have our books audited by an independent auditor yearly.

   5. Thank you everyone that responded to this. I don’t have anything to add, but think you captured my feelings.

   6. I’m not religious so I obviously don’t give to any churches, but can’t imagine criticizing others for doing so. If you go to the church, you have to pay for the building, staff, and all the rest somehow … I don’t think anyone expects their money not to be used for those purposes.

      As long as the money isn’t going to the diamonds worn by the preacher’s wife, don’t really see how its an issue.

7. What a wonderful topic, and so interesting to read everyone’s contributions! Just wanted to highlight a great site that can be a lot of fun to use.

   Peace Corps Partnerships is a website that lists volunteer projects developed in conjunction with their communities. The projects are from countries all over the world and are in every different sector- everything from a maternity clinic in Ghana to a girls’ leadership camp in the Ukraine.

   All money donated goes directly to the project, which is supervised by a volunteer who has been living and working in the community for two years. The project has to be co-sponsored by a community organization, which has to provide at least 25% of the funds. The projects are also vetted for viability by Peace Corps staff before being put on the website. As a former volunteer who saw countless development projects come and go (or in many cases the money come and no project follow), I think it’s pretty much the biggest bang for your buck out there on the international development front.

   My extended family has started a Christmas tradition now of doing a grab bag where everyone picks a project, and we then each pick someone else’s name and donate $50 to their project. Everyone has so much fun picking something unique to their interests that it’s become a favorite tradition!

   The website is: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.

8. We donated about 2.5% of our salary this year and our goal is to increase our giving to 5% in the next two years and hopefully to 10% once we’ve gotten our two children through college. The biggest chunk goes to our church, which is a small and financially strapped . The two next largest chunks are to The Pennsylvania Prison Society and Episcopal Community Services. I give a small amount both to college and law school to the scholarship fund as I benefited from scholarships as a student. We both are public interest lawyers and I am still paying off my student loans. We certainly could make more in private practice however our public interest salaries are more than twice the median income for a family of four in Pennsylvania. Thus we feel obligated to give back.

9. We tithe to our church… plus smaller amounts to various other charities.

   Of note… I worked in development at a Food Bank a few years ago… and left because I was quite concerned about their practice of re-selling donations to those charities that provide direct aid. At the Food Bank where i worked… all food that was donated was turned around and sold to the charities for 14 cents a pound. In my mind, I would prefer to give my food/financial donations directly to those giving the food away. I understand the charities need to get their food from somewhere but I do think this is something many people don’t realize about most of the food banks in America. Many that are affliated with America’s Second Harvest do re-sell their food to charities.

10. I am inspired by so many of you! I’m off to look at the donations we make and to see if we can make them more structured and deliberate–and maybe more effective.

11. WOW, I’m amazed at the levels of donations. I always thought I was on the low end of cash contributions, but this has really opened my eyes.

    My husband and I tithe to our church and donate to other local non-profits. Our cash donations to our church and other organizations last year were in excess of $10,000. This is while we’re paying off my student loans (still over $70k left there) and paying of credit card debt.

12. One way to increase your charitable giving is to give charity gift cards instead of gifts of ” stuff” when gift-giving is required. So often our family and friends have what they need or want (or have the resources to get what they really want). So a charity gift card can be very meaningul for some people. You get a tax-deductible receipt, and the recipient gets to choose the charity that gets the money. The cards are easily customized and look great; they’re a terrific alternative (or supplement) to a traditional material gift.
    http://www.TisBest.org

    1. Just be suspicious of any gifts going to the Human Fund.

13. Is there a way to give a charitable donation in someone else’s name and let the *recipient* take the tax break? If *I* take the tax break, it doesn’t really seem like a gift since it benefits me rather than the recipient.

    1. No, the deduction goes to the giver, who is actually making the donation. It’s not for everybody, but I can tell you that my brother thought it was the best birthday gift he’d received in years. He gave the donation to the Humane Society, and I never knew he had any interest in animals.

14. We give 10% of our income to our church, too. I have never given to an alumni association, and don’t plan on starting. We also support a couple of missionary-type people with a small amount each month. Last, when someone I know is doing a Komen walk or something like that, I always give a minimum of $10. I used to give a minimum of $50, but that’s when we had a lot more disposable income.

15. Total gross salary ~$200K. Total yearly charity donation ~$12K. Split among 5 very personal charities – children’s health, cancer research, international poverty, NPR, hospice. Would love for any of the five to no longer need us. :)

16. Here is a good piece on how to pick a charity to give to.

    http://www.philanthropyaction.com/nc/the_worst_and_best_way_to_pick_a_charity_this_year.

    I have worked for several non profits and while none of them were wasteful in any way, I do hate it when donors don’t want any money to go to overhead. How else are you going to pay for the lights and internet connection? High percentages are crazy but also its very hard to get to super low percentages.

    That said, I must recommend one great micro credit organization I know something about, http://www.adelantefoundation.org.

17. At charity luncheons, our firm recommends giving the equivalent of one of your billable hours.

18. Wow, this is a pretty sad commentary on what people consider “a lot.” My husband and I tithe (10%). Yes, we make a good income, so that means over $30k per year. And no, we’re not Baptist; just plain old Methodists! We’re also giving above our tithe for our building campaign. Yes, I’d rather spend the money on a new car, rather than our beater work about $3k (max!) or clothes for our 3 kids, or clothes for me! Or vacation… but I find when I give, it makes my heart light and happy and pays me back in spades.

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20. With the exception of just a year or two here and there, we have always given 10% of our gross income, whatever it is, to charity. We come from a Christian tradition and our parents always tithed. Some of that goes to our church, but more than half goes to other nonprofits that we like that do direct services or arts. We have always done this–even back when it was my $7 per hour earnings as an employee of an independent book publisher, before law school. So it wasn’t much in the way of actual money then, but a lot more now. Setting it as a percentage and viewing that as the goal makes it easier than thinking about total amount.

21. I, like so many above me, am deeply immersed in loans. I found that even though my time is extremely limited (I am not a lawyer, but an accountant who is studying for my CPA exams – so I like to think I am right there up with the rest of you when it comes to time!), my finances are also limited (Living in CA, I started off with $36K/year last year. This year I am up to $50K and breathing a bit more easily!). Back to charity – instead of writing checks, I decided to volunteer.

    I volunteer primarily for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Ventura County and have found it to be an incredible experience. With CASA, I work as an advocate for foster youth. Of course, spending time with children can also be expensive in it’s own right, as I have purchased misc. items (crayons, coloring books, etc.) as well as food if we are hungry! But the money outlay has probably been about $500 – $1,000 in the past year, which is not much when laid out as a percentage of my income, and the “feel-good” rewards have been high. Plus I don’t have to worry about whether the money is going to the cause or to pad pockets – I know excatly how my funds and time are being spent, and that it’s well worth it!

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