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Selecting charity difficult
as needsdwarfdonations
By s2!~Block
USA Today
For thefirsttimeini~25-year
history, the Mississippi Food
Network d i d n't distribute
turkeys to needy Mississippians
this Thanksgiving.
The charity is wrestling with
the same dilemma facing other
food banks and pantries across
the country: While the econom-
ic down turn has increased the
need for social services, dona-
tions have dropped.
Nearly 50 million Americans,
including 17 million children,
were at risk of going hungry last
year, an increase of 36 percent
from a year earlier, according to
a su rvey by the Agriculture
Department.
The situation has probably
worsened since the survey was
conducted. . dent of Schwab Charit ble, a
Feeding America, a national
hunger relief organization, says
average demand at the nation's
food banks increased 30 percent
this year.
If you're in a position to help,
the need is clearly great. But
selecting a charity will be even
harder than usual this year.
Rat'los eased
Many donors and watchdog
groups look at how much chari­
ties spend on fundraising and
overhead wh en evaluating a
group's effectiveness.
T h e B.e .tler Business
Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance's
accountaliility standards, for
example, require that charities
spend at least 65 percent of
their total exp en ses on pro­
grams and no more than 35 per­
ce nt of co n t ri buti on s o n
fundraising.
But many charities have suf­
fered a sharp drop in donations
this year, which could negative­
ly affect such financial ratios,
the alliance said last week.
To avoid penalizing other­
wise good charities, the BBB
said it's giving the charities it information about in-kind dona­
evaluates a 10 percent devia­ tions?
tion from its standard financial
i
ratios.
S om e ques -
tion to ponder
before you give:
Wh e re do I
want my dollars
to go?
With so many
people going
hungr y i n the
U.S., you may prefer 'upport-
ing charities in this country, or
even your hometown .
Bu t hunger is a worldwide
problem that has been exacer-
bated by the global recession.
No safety net
While many believe the U.S.
safety netis frayed, many devel-
oping countries have no safety
net for starvi ng people, says
Kimberly Wright-Violich , presi-
donor-advised fund.
In addition, Wright-Violich
says, your contributions may go
furt her i n p oor c ou n tr i es
bea- use the cost of living i so
much lower.
Likewi e, consider whether
you want to donate to organiza­
tions t hat support immediate
needs, such as food pantries, or
those that work to alleviate the
long-ter m cause of poverty,
Wright-Violich says.
A charity that provides loans
to entrepreneurs in developing
countries would fall into the
second category, she says.
Ultimately, the choice is a
personal one, says Ken Berger,
president of Charity Navigator,
a charity watchdog group,
"I'm uneasy considering one
type of organization more wor­
thy than another because it's
local or internalional," he says.
"That's something each person
has to decide for themselves in
ternlSof where their heart leads
them."
Valueinflated
Does t he cha rity di close
Sandra Block writes for USA
Today. E-mail her al sblock@
Many ch arities di -t ribu te usatoday.com.
food, medicine and other items
d onated by co rporate part­
ners.
In some cases, though, the
charities inflate t he val ue of
these items to make it look like
they're spending more of their
budgets on programs than they
really are, says Dan iel Boro­
choff, president of the Ameri­
can Institute of Philanthropy, a
charity watchdog.
Even more troubling, some
in-kind donations are of limited
use to the people the charity
pur ports to help.
"S ome h ave g iven aw ay
cookies and crackers and soda
pop to hungry people,» Boro­
choff says.
Feeding America, which dis-
tributes more than 2 billion
pounds of food a year, does a
good jo b of ex plain ing how
donations from grocery compa­
nies are valued and distributed,
Borochoff says.
Ins'lde vl'ew
Should I also donate mvtime?
Volunte e ring prov-ides a
great way to assess whether a
charity is fulfilling its mission .
When yo u vol unteer, "You
get a real sense about whether
a place is well-run and what
ki nd of culture and a t mo s­
phere it has when making a
funding decision," Wright-Vio­
Iich ays.
Pl us, volunteering help
donors develop long-term rela­
tionships with charities, says
Sarah Libbey, president of the
Fidelity Charitable Gift fund , a
donor-advised fund.
Americans who donate their
time and skills con tribute an
average of 10 times more money
to charity than people who don't
volunteer, according to a new
urvey by the fund.
To find volunleeringopportu­
nili es in yo ur ar e a, g o to
www.volunteermatch.org.
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