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A $100 donation to a food pantry represents $100 that can be spent in an irresponsible manner, but $100 worth of food is $100 worth of nutrition to someone who needs it.
I ran a food bank for just over ten years.
While I GREATLY appreciated the donation of goods, I was really happy to get the cash. I could parlay that into three to six times the amount of food the average person could buy for the same price. Excess stock, slightly dented cans, government surplus, etc allowed me to do that, along with matching grants.
Your $100 would have given me $200 to buy with!
After working in the non-profit industry for 20 years, one personal opinion I've developed is to not give thru United Way. It's a different situation if you are a big donor, but for small donations UW takes out a moderate percentage before it hits the charity to cover administrative costs.
I did a quick Google search and found one article saying 22%. That may be higher than usual. I was thinking 15%.
I ran a food bank for just over ten years.
While I GREATLY appreciated the donation of goods, I was really happy to get the cash. I could parlay that into three to six times the amount of food the average person could buy for the same price. Excess stock, slightly dented cans, government surplus, etc allowed me to do that, along with matching grants.
Your $100 would have given me $200 to buy with!
In addition to an annual charity drive, my employer participates in an annual food drive. Generally I go to Costco and buy about $50-75 worth of non-perishables. Last year we had the option of making a cash gift online to our local food bank but you could pick the food, e.g., chicken, milk, beans & rice. I chose the milk because the food bank could get it at $1 or less per gallon and I didn't have to haul 50 lbs of food into work. And it was nice to be able to donate a perishable item for a change. I don't care if they actually used my money to buy milk or not as long as they got something they needed at a good price.
For the annual charity drive, I have money taken out of my paycheck each pay period and generally contribute to local shelters for the homeless, battered women and children, and animals and to the food bank. We can request whether we want the charity to obtain our name and address or not and I choose no so as not to get solicitations. Generally I look for charities with low administrative costs but realize that it may be based on the nature of their work and services. A shelter that helps their clients obtain jobs, living quarters, and medical care is going to have higher overhead than one that just provides a warm meal and a cot to sleep on at night.
I've studied up on the bigger orgs to see which ones spend the most on overhead and whatnot. I had 3 charities I gave to annually for a few years but then found out about a local place when our high school hosted a fundraiser for it and a woman I know started working there. My entire annual charity budget has gone there for the last 2 years, I make one donation annually. Occasionally I'll put a few bills in the collection box at the local animal shelter too because I sometimes walk over there and look at the kitties!
Give directly to people I know are in need. Otherwise, no matter how confident you are, unable to verify funds are actually being used for said purpose.
Also offers the true, natural feeling that accompanies giving directly. The blessed feeling goes both ways since it's real.
At times, I've also given to charities and always give some to church
I give items--furniture, clothing, whatever we have in excess to either a veteran thrift shop when in CA or a shelter support thrift store in TN. Since we moved there has been a lot of things donated! I donate clothes and toys to an abused children's and woman's shelter.
I give food and school supplies and clothing directly to some people that I know are struggling.
I donate to scouts and the events they sponsor like scouting for food. I also will pay for Summer camp or outing expenses for some scouts that could not otherwise afford to attend the event in my kid's troops. (Both my kids are in scouts.) So these donations go to kids I know are in need within my kid's troops, and the kids just know that the 'troop' has enough funds to cover their costs.
I have donated to some local causes--an unexpected funeral, medical related expenses (like travel and staying at a far away place for treatment), a pets medical bills--BUT only for local families who are known and that the cause is also verifiable. And with 'strings' like the pet expenses are paid directly to the vet, not to the pet owner. Same with funeral expenses. I did not set it up like that, the local community I used to live in set it up that way...money to the needy generally went directly to the bill, not the person.
I donate money to meals on wheels, food to food banks and local feeding stations, money and food to the holiday meal served in the community to those with no where to go. I donate money to Salvation Army, mainly to their holiday meal and shelter programs.
I donate a small amount, probably $100-$200 a year to the folks that send cards and return address stickers in the mail. I actually like the cards. And I inherited these charities when my mom passed away and her mail was forwarded to my house.
I do not donate to organized groups like Red Cross and Goodwill--too much to the salaries of their leaders.
For disaster relief, I only donate if I truly trust the receiving organization to spend the money on what the disaster needs and can deliver to the needy.,,,not themselves. Only organization that met that requirement in a good long time was Dolly Parton's for the fire in TN. And that was a good choice, at the end of the charity's function they gave out the remaining funds to the people affected by the disaster.
Where I live in TN there is a Habitat for Humanity which I would like to look into and they may be added to my list in the future.
This is not really a donation, but I do micro loans through Kiva to individuals in Guatemala. I started doing this with my kids and we now have had 9 loans fully paid back and 6 loans outstanding. I started this with my kids choosing who to donate to and did not really expect to be repaid, but so far we always have. Its letting my kids learn about the struggles some have, their dreams, how we can help others, and how blessed we are with the resources we have.
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