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Want to calculate a charity’s program spending percentage? You can do it in three steps: Find the charity’s latest Form 990 or Form 990-EZ return. Are you a “regular” donor who wants to be more thoughtful and strategic in your giving? Why not learn from the work of the professional givers? There are some terrific learning resources out there, including publications created by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO). A few favorites from GEO The Wall Street Journal reports today on hospitals taking information gathered from patients and using it in hospital fundraising efforts. Certainly charities should be able to do research on potential donors, but this is going to far! Hospitals regularly gather much more information about us than other charities. Hospitals have struggled with the protected patient information rules [...] A well-intentioned, but amateur, drive to send 1 million t-shirts to people in need in Africa has been dropped. Reaffirms to me the value that well-managed, professional, focused charities bring. Read Emma Jacobs post at HaitiRewired. The little blue book, a thought-provoking 59-page guide recently published by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), is now available for free online. Drawing from its existing listings of large charities, CharityNavigator has done a nice job pulling together information on charities responding to the devastating Haiti earthquake. More than 40 of the charities have CharityNavigator’s 4 star (top) rating. Read the CharityNavigator article. It’s a terrific time to be generous. With demand for charity services up, and donations to charity down, charities need our support now. The Washington Post has published an interesting article about challenges facing young people who have inherited or stand to inherit big money. How do they deal with raising families, being responsive to society’s needs, and having what is likely more money they’ll ever need? Read the article. The list highlights “charitable phishing scams” — e-mails that appear to be from legitimate charities. “Not only will they take your money and deprive charities of needed funds, but they will also steal your credit card information and identity.” Read Larry Magid’s article at CNET News. |
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