The Case for Giving to Nonprofits

It's that time of year. Everyone's in the giving spirit. And people start giving money left and right to charity, even in these hard times.

I, for example, will be attending 3 charity events in the next 10 days. Second String Santa, Beards Because, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will each be getting a donation from me, during a time where I'm having a hard time trying to make ends meet. It's sad, but true.

So, it wouldn't be me if I didn't tell you my peeves about this time of year. Everyone is throwing parties, making donations, and having a great time in the name of charity. And of course, I am totally psyched about that. But here's where I can have some issues...

1-Yes, it's great to go to a party and make a donation and have fun. But do one thing. Research the charity. When we did the Halloween party, we were handing out little info cards at the door. The cards had the Guys with Ties website and the Bethlehem Center website on it, as well as a cute factoid, "Your donation tonight sent a kid on an educational field trip." Most people just stuck it in their wallet (honestly, that's really all it was worth... stick it in your wallet and find it the next day and remember it). Some actually remembered. I actually met up with J after the check presentation for drinks, and when he introduced me to his friends as working at the Bethlehem Center, the guy goes, "Oh, yeah! You're the Halloween party!" That's half the point of it, folks. We want you to know who we are. But then, here's my peeve. We had one guy, as Jill was handing him the card, go, "I don't care who it's for. I'm just here to party." Wow. Seriously, you just said that to someone who works with the kids daily??? I hope that someone gets that card and researches what we do. I hope that someone decides they want to mentor one of the kids because they heard of us. I hope that someone ends up becoming a donor and helping support the programs. But at the very least, please just research the charity you're supporting.

2-People throw parties because they want to help needy families. This is a great premise! I love it! But then, they don't know who to help. So, they start their own toy center or clothing drive or whatever and give these things out to "needy" families. But let me make you aware of something. Salvation Army, Department of Social Services, Bethlehem Center, and other "Angel Tree" agencies work very very hard around Christmas time to cover the needy families in the area. This means two things. 1, we have a certain amount of families that we help, and sometimes struggle to cover those families and 2, we have processes in place to avoid duplication of services. So what does this mean? It means that those families you're giving toys to might be turning around and going to DSS or Salvation Army or Bethlehem Center and getting two times the "stuff", while our three agencies are still struggling to find donors for the families that didn't get sponsored at all. If you want to start your own party, I suggest you find agencies that really need the help. I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. I hate it when we lose money to those agencies that are telling me on the side, "We have plenty of money." GRRRRRR.... So glad we might not be able to send all of our kids to camp next year because your agency collected a grant you didn't need...


So, have fun, but do your research. Charity Navigator, BBB, and other websites can help you out, but won't have info about smaller nonprofits (BC is actually not listed on these, but I'm working on it).