Charity Contributions
 

First, let me say that I am not opposed to contributions to wherever you choose to make them. It's your money, time, etc.; your decision. However, now, when I pick up my mail, on some days 4 out of 5 pieces of mail are requests for money. Can't turn on the TV without being bombarded with requests for money. Like most people, I can afford a certain amount of my budget for this, and my question is: Is it better to spread your money around, making smaller contributions to more requests, or to make much larger ones to a few requests. Just trying to get a feel on how other people in The Villages feel.

Everytime we make what we think is a one time contribution to a charity they will thank us by asking for more every few weeks.

As a result most of our mail is from about a dozen charities we have given donation to and probably will not do so in the future.

I recommend using the websites "Charity Navigator" and "Guidestar" which provide reviews of charities. You can set up a username and password for both sites, which will give you access to the IRS Form 990 that charities need to submit every year. Although, reading these forms do not always tell you much about the charity. They are very vague. I like to check the salaries of the highest paid people who manage the charity. For example, the charity "Wounded Warriors Project" has at least 10 very highly compensated officers. The CEO makes more money than any military officer has ever made in the history of the country. That is why I would never donate to that charity. Also, if you search "wounded warriors" you will find that there are thousands of other charities who are using a similar name, a common practice in the charity business. It is also important to read the charity's mission statement because the charity may not be doing what you think it is doing.

My biggest complaint about charities is that it is very easy to get the IRS designation as a tax deductible 501c3 charity, but there is no IRS requirement to have any efficiency at all. As long as you spend some money on your charity's stated mission, it is legal. So, theoretically, you can raise $10 million in donations, but, if you only spend $100 on the mission, the IRS doesn't care. In my opinion, picking a good charity is more important than how you spread the money around.

I usually donate once or twice a year to my favorite charities. However, once you get on their list, they bombard you with repeated requests. Some charities send requests out 2-3 times a month. I don’t know anyone who donates to a charity 25-30 times a year. Because of this wasteful solicitation, I have actually cut back on some charities figuring that if they have that much money for solicitation, they must be doing pretty well!!

Tunnels To Towers is the latest charity that I'm interested in. I sent them a note via email to let them know that the first time they mention me increasing my donation that they will be on the naughty list and dropped immediately.

I got a very nice and thoughtful personal letter guaranteeing me that that would never occur. About a week later they asked for more. I really like them so I gave them a second chance. It worked out just fine.......that was nice months ago. All is well.

I thought I had successfully escaped the college donation phone calls. But, yesterday, I actually got a phone call from the University of Florida, where I got a Masters degree more than 40 years ago. Go figure.

It looks like Tunnel to Towers is a good charity. Charity Navigator gave it a 4 out of 4 star rating. I also read their latest Form 990 from 2020. None of their officers received any direct compensation, including Frank Siller. They received revenue income of about $114 million and spent about $48 million on their most advertised program, which is building smart homes and paying off mortgages. Not bad.

Those able to give to charity should. Please make make sure your money is actually getting to those you intended to help. Never give to someone calling or soliciting on someone’s behalf. Give directly to the organization. You make the call. Anyone in a basement can say they are with x organization and take your credit card.
If you want to help out classroom teachers ( regular Ed, special Ed, music, pe, low income ect) this site gets 96% to classroom Teachers submit projects/supplies they want to fro in their classroom.

DonorsChoose: Support a classroom. Build a future.

You can even find specific school in specific state.

DonorsChoose.org | Charity Ratings | Donating Tips | Best Charities | CharityWatch

3 Websites To Check To Be Informed Before Giving To Charity

Charity Check Up: Know Where Your Money is Going

There are three T’s in charity, it is Time, Talent, Treasure. This is meant for all that can do what you can, if you don’t have the time or the talent then use your treasure, remember this all is if you are able. Now that being said why look to national organizations to donate when right here in your local neighborhoods we have people who are hungry, children with no coats or shoes, schools that need books, etc… you get the picture. If you can join a local organization like the Knights of Columbus, Lions, or Rotary Club that can guide you with your abilities all the better. We all heard of BOGO’s. My wife still thinks she’s feeding a family of five so we give to the local food pantries. I’m writing this not so people can knock one organization over another or one charity or another but let’s help starting in our own backyard and work our way out. My mother use to say “do the best you can with what you got”.

Gary Sinise foundation
 

This is a great charity and has done a wonderful concert here at the Villages in the past, and Gary keeps nothing from the donations personally and they give back almost 90% of the donations. Make a Donation | Gary Sinise Foundation

Good questions. We give once each year in December. We do not “round up” at the check out at stores and we do not donate at stores. Our donations are in our name, not store name. We do listen to tv ads and yes, “St Jude” and “Tunnel to Towers” and “Shriners Hospital”, etc took their toll on our emotions and receive a little something. My biggest concern is how much of our dollar actually goes to the needy and how much goes to “administrative” expenses. A bit of a quandary, no??

This is one of the most helpful TOTV posts ever. I learned a lot. Thank you.

I run a non profit that provides housing assistance to veterans in Philadelphia.

First, look at the financial statement called “statement of activities” - it shows you the percent of costs spent on admin and fund raising. If that percent is above 7 to 10%, its not a well run charity.

Don’t worry about the directors not getting paid, most charities have that. Most non profits have volunteer boards. If the executive leadership is NOT getting paid, that is bad, you want talented leadership, just like a for profit company, leading strategic decisions.

Most charities would prefer a larger donation vs many smaller donations. So dont feel bad about giving to more money to fewer charities.

If you are getting bombarded with donation requests from a charity, its not well run (those messages cost money). You might be getting monthly emails about their impact (i.e. who they are helping).

Now that's solid reasoning. Give money to a charity you believe in and then punish them for sending you too much mail. If you ran a charity wouldn't you go back to those who have donated in the past?

We give to 3-4 charities + our church each year with our larger donations. I found that large charities have lots of local presences running as their own 501c3 where you can meet the local staff. For example Habitat for Humanity is huge but they have local 501c3’s all over the place that report up to them. HFH here in TV has Lake Sumter Habitat. I personally met the leaders there and then I felt good about my donations. Here in TV is a HFH club that fund raises and builds their own homes for the actual local HFH organization. Donations to the local org can be redirected to the club for the local home build.

Charity Navigator will show you all the local options.

Then there is the time component. HFH has everything from building houses to retail assistance at the restores. That is worth a lot of $$$ as well and building houses helps with my lack of exercise burning calories. The house building also gives you a chance to meet directly the new home owners and hear their story… that part brings tears to everyone’s eyes. Then there are food banks where you could do things like take your kids or grand kids to say Sam’s Club or WalMart with the list of items the FB needs and take the items to the FB and let the young ones see how charity works. All these options I use avoid money going directly into a black hole and I am able to more closely see who is getting the money.

We also use a Donor Advised Fund which allows for better tax planning and also shields our home address from the charity eliminating all the garbage mail.

Free Giving
 

I donate to Tunnel to Towers for free (in addition to my monetary giving). How? Every search I do on Bing creates a small donation. If you choose this search engine, there are various charities they donate to.

I donate to Compassion International for free (in addition to my monetary giving) How? Visiting smile.amazon.com instead of just amazon.com causes one-half of one percent of everything bought to be donated to the charity of your choice. It adds up.

I give a small amount to help hunger for free. Clicking at thehungersite.com (even while on a VPN) generates a small amount of food each time it is done. I mean to do it daily, though I sometimes forget. No email address is entered to give by clicking at this site. Many would not trust this but I have had no problem over the years and I do trust it. Make your own decision.

Percent for Expenses
 

I have always gone with "expenses" 15% or less, with 85% going directly to beneficiaries. Why? Because advertising is needed to increase the amount that is given - more will be helped if a charity advertises (within reason). Also, hiring able and talented people is important. Charities may see their best people leave if salaries are not competitive. I've been deeply involved with my favorite charity, Compassion International, visiting headquarters, working for them, attending special events, and I am convinced that the 15% to expenses is wise. They are careful to keep it under that percent. They have more than doubled the number of people they help over the years. I have visited the sites where they are helping and they do great work.

I think the answer is that this is a very personal decision by each person. There is no one correct answer. Most of our charity money gets concentrated to a few priority organizations.

My opinion: from a practical standpoint, if you spread it out such that a larger number of organizations get small amounts, I think your overall effectiveness is diminished or possibly even neutered. Many will then use most / all of YOUR money to solicit you endlessly for additional $$. Personally, I can only use so many return address labels and small note pads.

I give to Best Friends in Kanab Utah, and local animal shelters where I've adopted dogs. Best Friends is legit, and when they email for more money it's accompanied by pictures of cute puppies and kittens..... win win.

Thanks loads. I am the originator of the thread, and I was amazed at the number of replies and the very good thoughts of all of them. Gave me the answers I needed.

But how often should they be sending you mail asking for donations?

Once a month, twice, three? People asking for further donations has gotten well out of hand

Give money locally where it makes a difference. Donating to large charities is like spitting in the ocean. They have no problem getting corporate funds

That is a business that makes money from people donating

Some great stuff here. I'll reinforce the Amazon-Smile route. I set it up with our former church back north when we lived there. When we transferred our membership to another church here I left the Amazon-Smile with the old church, as it's a way to still support them.

Not too much on an annual basis (Maybe $50) but as noted if everyone that uses Amazon were to select a charity and do it, it adds up, and is absolutely painless once established.

I prefer to donate local only.

Make your donations count
 

Please make your donations count by checking to make sure the places you donate to are legitimate, have a good record of helping, and aren’t wasting your donation. I have saved almost all the donation requests over the last 15 months. I have made a list of all the groups in the notes section in my phone that we are considering donating to. A friend has written to those groups she is donating to and asking them to only send her mail once a year or they will be taken off the donation list. I intend to do that and give them a couple chances to stop sending requests. After that I will remove them. The hard part is narrowing the number of groups. Cancer groups, religious groups that provide care throughout the world such as those that helped out in Fort Myers (we volunteered with CRS), National Church Shrines, groups that help children like St. Jude’s, Shriner’s, etc. The one thing is we are going to donate once a year so we keep track of the donations. They can all be entered in the phone notes section. Best of luck! I am working on the donations and letters this week. I didn’t include that we give to our churches and food pantries throughout the year.

Villagers Habitat for Humanity Club
 

I want to thank you for bringing up the Villages Habitat for Humanity Club. We work very closely with the main affiliate, Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter, building homes in the area. We also have instituted a program here in The Villages called Villagers Home Assist where a team of volunteers will come to your house and help you with outside lawn care, power washing, painting, tree and bush trimming, etc, for a donation to our building fund so we can continue our mission to build houses in the area. If you are interested in donating, being a member of the Club or in the Villagers Home Assist Program, you can send an email to me, Sally Read, co-president of the Villagers Habitat Club at villagershabitat @ gmail. Our Club meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month at Sea Breeze Rec Center at 6:00 PM. Anyone is welcome to come and find more about our Club and the great work that we do.

PM[QUOTE=Janie123;2164653]We give to 3-4 charities + our church each year with our larger donations. I found that large charities have lots of local presences running as their own 501c3 where you can meet the local staff. For example Habitat for Humanity is huge but they have local 501c3’s all over the place that report up to them. HFH here in TV has Lake Sumter Habitat. I personally met the leaders there and then I felt good about my donations. Here in TV is a HFH club that fund raises and builds their own homes for the actual local HFH organization. Donations to the local org can be redirected to the club for the local home build.

[QUOTE=theorem painter;2165230]I want to thank you for bringing up the Villages Habitat for Humanity Club. We work very closely with the main affiliate, Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter, building homes in the area. We also have instituted a program here in The Villages called Villagers Home Assist where a team of volunteers will come to your house and help you with outside lawn care, power washing, painting, tree and bush trimming, etc, for a donation to our building fund so we can continue our mission to build houses in the area. If you are interested in donating, being a member of the Club or in the Villagers Home Assist Program, you can send an email to me, Sally Read, co-president of the Villagers Habitat Club at villagershabitat @ gmail. Our Club meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month at Sea Breeze Rec Center at 6:00 PM. Anyone is welcome to come and find more about our Club and the great work that we do.

PMYou'll do a FANTASTIC job! My 2 homes look beautiful. Thank you for what you do.

We donate to charities but do so on an individual basis, never through a third party and absolutely never to one of those one-size-fits-all charitable corporations. I'm not going to badmouth any reputable charity but there is a good chance that those conglomerates that dole out money to many different charities might be giving money to a cause that you don't necessarily agree with, or deny contributions to causes that you think might deserve more. Or at least something.

I once got a call from a telemarketer asking for a donation to a charity. It was a young, naive woman who was apparently calling from her house bacause I could hear children in the background. I asked her where she was located and she gave me the name of a small town in Texas. Then, I said to her, if I donate $100, how much money she would make? She said that she would keep $85 and send $15 to the charity. I told her that was fraudulent, and that she should be ashamed, get an honest job, and I hung up.

When I ask that question and they will usually say they do not know which of course is ridiculous.