The Smarter Giving Guy » tips

Tips for your year-end giving

SG Guy — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:25:17 +0000

Giving to fewer charities can result in more of your money going to programs you care about. Read more about this, tax-free IRA donations, avoiding scams and other year-end giving tips.

SGO calls for charities to show their EINs

SG Guy — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:29:17 +0000

Charity identities matter. Among other things, scam “charities” adopt names confusingly similar to legitimate groups — and siphon off dollars needed for good works.
Using an EIN is the quickest path to successful charity research. While charity names can be similar, no two charities have the same EIN.
Read the SGO call for charities to show their EINs. SGO helps charity donors boost their impact.

Helping you choose the best charity car donation approach

SG Guy — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:57:19 +0000

Your Car?

Ever thought about donating a car? SeriousGivers has just made available a free, expanded report on charity car donations. It’s an eye-opener. Don’t donate your car until you’ve read it.

Read the “Serious about Charity Car Donations” report.

The giving pledge for the rest of us

SG Guy — Sat, 14 May 2011 21:03:33 +0000

You’ve likely heard about the “Gates – Buffett Giving Pledge” — a terrific program that invites the wealthiest in America to commit the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Now available: the giving pledge for the rest of us. Individuals and families donate more than $250 billion a year. If we’re serious about how we donate, together we can change the world. Take the Serious Givers Pledge — it won’t cost you a dime!

Charity Car Donation Report Issued

SG Guy — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:02:35 +0000

SeriousGivers.Org (SGO) has just issued an eye-opening report on donation of cars to charity.

The SGO report spells out important questions you should consider before donating a car. It also examines the overall benefits — and shares conclusions on whether a donation will be a win, loss or draw.

Among other things, the SGO report concludes that

Donating a car to a charity that will sell the car never produces a win.
For a car with a $1,000 private sale value, donating the car or selling it and donating proceeds produce almost identical overall results (at best, a draw).
For a car with a private sale value of $2,000 or more:
- The best choice is donating the car to a charity that will use the car in its programs.
- The second best choice is to sell the car and donate proceeds.

Read the SGO Report.

Handy IRS tips on deducting donations

SG Guy — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:23:55 +0000

The IRS just published a handy list of eight tips for deducting charitable contributions.

Why not print it out and keep it with your charitable contributions “stuff” — and take a look at it before you make a donation?

IRS Tip #1 — make sure you are giving to a charity. You can use the www.seriousgivers.org/find-a-charity/ page to check — every organization included in the www.seriousgivers.org database is a public charity to which donations are deductible.

Here’s the IRS tips.

Go slow on Japan disaster donations

SG Guy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:59:34 +0000

Today’s New York Times reports that the Japanese Red Cross says it doesn’t need donations, few charities actually work in Japan, and that U.S. organizations that are receiving donations in response to the Japan earthquake/tsunami disaster don’t have a plan for what they’ll do with the money. Let’s go slow on this.

Read The New York Times article.

Read our post on avoiding disaster-related “charity” scams.

Tips for year-end giving — 2010 edition

SG Guy — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:16:04 +0000

It’s a terrific time to be generous. With demand for charity services up, and donations to charity down, charities need our support now.
Stick with your budget. Philanthropy is wonderful, but first make sure to take care of yourself and those who depend on you.
Focus your giving on causes you care about. Don’t give to everyone.
Research before you give. Many charities do strong work with the moneys entrusted to them. Others, unfortunately, do not. Spend no less than 30 minutes screening a charity before you give. Look at the percentage of spending that goes to programs, review their cash reserves, check their spending on staffing, see how much they spend to raise a dollar. For more tips.
Select fewer charities. Not only does this help you stick with your giving focus, it means you can make better use of your research time. Let’s say you’d spend at least 30 minutes screening a charity. Give to eight, and you’ll spend four hours. Focus on two or three, and you can research more deeply, get to know each of them better, and still save time.
Selecting fewer charities can also mean more of your dollars go to charity programs. Let’s say you’d give $25 to each of eight charities. If the average charity spends $10 to process a gift it receives, $80 (or 40%) of the $200 you’d give goes to processing costs. If you instead give $100 to each of two charities, only $20 (or 10%) goes to processing costs. That means $60 (30%) more available for programs.
Scammers increase their efforts when they see people are feeling generous. The holiday season is one of those times. Every dollar scam “charities” take in is a dollar that could instead have gone to a strong charity.

Many people do much of their charitable giving at year-end. All of the above tips are also good advice year-round. Happy giving!

Simplified charity conflicts of interest policy

SG Guy — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:31:56 +0000

A while back we posted a sample charity conflicts of interest policy, along with the background on the IRS request for information on such policies.

Feedback has suggested that some groups want a simpler policy — so we’ve created one and now make it available as a public service: Conflicts Policy – Simplified.

As always, we appreciate your comments.

Fascinating charity telemarketer thinking

SG Guy — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:56:00 +0000

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last Sunday on the work of Jason Birrittier — charity telemarketing entrepreneur. Jason recently shut down his telemarketing operation (called Public Safety), after a run-in with law enforcement. He denied all allegations.

Based in St. Louis, and with contracts with Disabled Firefighters Fund, the Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, and the American Veterans Relief Foundation, Public Safety kept more than 80 percent of the money it raised. Note: each of those three “badge” organizations had previously earned our Charity Skunk award.

Read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story.

Comments in the article from Mr. Birrittier provide fascinating insight into his thinking (and perhaps that of similar charity telemarketers). According to the Post-Dispatch:

“I felt by what I was doing, I was still helping out,” Birrittier said.
Birrittier said he enjoyed talking to donors. If any of them asked how much of their donation would stay with Public Safety, he said, he would offer the truth — 82 or 85 percent, depending on the charity. “People would still give after telling them that,” he said, “believe it or not.”

Apparently his thinking was — “If people are willing to donate when more than 80% won’t go to the charity, why shouldn’t I give them the opportunity?”

Mr. Birrittier reminds us why we avoid charities that use paid telemarketers.