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| I don't think that's just it, though. by skip 06/24/2013, 12:50pm PDT | ||||
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Maybe I focused too much on the negatives. I donate to charities yearly and I think it's worth doing. It may have been missed because it was highlighted but:
"Charities that focus on the environment, human rights, homelessness and mental health generally earn As and Bs. Also getting high marks: charitable organizations dealing with controversial issues like abortion, guns and gay rights who have a reliable base of donors they can cheaply tap." I'd add that animal charities and the public broadcasting groups I've donated to have also held up to scrutiny. When your charity is focused on a group that can't speak for themselves very well and people generally don't give a shit about (animals, homeless, the mentally ill, environment), you have active opposition (reproductive/gay/gun rights), and you have a very clear goal (public broadcasting), the charity is generally reliable. Donors to these charities pickier too so they might actually look at your financials. Cancer/children charities get money by tugging on heart strings so they don't have to try that hard and many of them have such general goals (cancer treatment/prevention/diagnosis/guidelines) that the organization doesn't do any of them well. Right-wing extremists exist, but are so marginalized by the mainstream that the SPLC/ADL is fighting ghosts. Everything they do could probably be absorbed by the ACLU and their cause is probably better fought by funding prison/legal reform since most white supremacy gangs flourish there. I like Charity Navigator, Guide Star and Charity Watch just fine to help winnow out obvious shitty charities, but you can tell even about a charity by just checking out their website. Let's do Child's Play since that's what this website cares about. It's impossible to find their form 990 on their website or audited financials. There's a fundraising guide, testimonials and the FAQ has sections on tax ID's and wishlists, but nothing on how much is given and where the money goes. There's also no section about donating via trusts or securities. After some googling I found them on Foundation Center. In the form, they say they don't provide it on their website but it's on Guidestar (which requires a goddamn account to download so fuck that) and on request, but why should you have to? Some interesting things are that they earn 34,000 from Amazon commissions, ~90% of their hospital donations are in the US and that it looks like they give a flat amount to each hospital(13,885) which is probably earmarked for games/toys. If you want to donate to a hospital's games budget, you can always do it directly by donating to a hospital and specifically requesting that your donation be used to buy video games and they are legally required to do that. Compare this to the Animal Welfare Institute, where you can easily view their Form 990 and audited financials, annual report, and their donation page has multiple options on how to give. The one thing that PA does better is that I like their calendar of ongoing fundraising events (mostly Youtube/Twitch.tv gameathons) and their fundraising how-to guide. |
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Terrible charities by 06/10/2013, 12:18am PDT  activist causes and non-profits by 06/20/2013, 3:27pm PDT I don't think that's just it, though. by 06/24/2013, 12:50pm PDT |
