Terry Ambrose

Home of Mysteries with Character

Tips to pick the best charity for giving

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The United Charities Building at 287 Park Aven... - tips to pick the best charity
The United Charities Building at 287 Park Avenue South in Manhattan, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The holiday season is when charities make the bulk of their money. And, just as Christmas decorations and advertising have steadily marched forward through the calendar, charities have been shifting their holiday solicitations into November and sooner. In addition to expanding the “Season of Solicitation,” they’ve also raised the stakes by sending more unsolicited and expensive gifts.

When did charities start giving “gifts” anyway? It’s been a many years since the very first time I opened a charitable solicitation in the mail and discovered they were sending me something. Back in those days, it might have been a penny. Then, it became a nickel, a dime, preprinted address labels, a shopping bag, etc. Where will it end? Given that charities wield some hefty lobbying power, the answer to that question is, “With you.”

On November 7, Rhys Bowen posted Brother, Can You Spare a Dime on the Jungle Red Writers blog to discuss the issue of charities, giving, and guilt. In her post, Rhys said, “I have now come to dread collecting the mail. It seems generosity now goes with a stab in the back instead of a thank-you.”

Rhys was talking about what has become common practice in the industry, selling the contact information of donors to other charities. Oddly enough, there’s nothing illegal about this practice. Many people think there’s nothing they can do about to stop the flood of junk mail, but you do have options. Here are three tips to pick the best charity for giving.

Tips to pick the best charity for giving

Tip #1: Know the charity’s reputation

It seems so bizarre that we need a charity to monitor charities, but that’s what Charity Navigator does. You can check the reputation of many charities by going to the Charity Navigator website and entering the name. They even have lists, such as 10 Consistently Low-rated Charities.

Tip #2: Request to opt out

When you donate, some charities will offer you the option to opt out of solicitations. Look for the fine print on the donation card or web page, they’re not likely to make this option very obvious.

Tip #3: Use a service to stop the junk

You can report unwanted mail to Catalog Choice and they’ll process your request for you.

Unfortunately, none of these tips to pick the best charity come with a guarantee, but if they reduce some of the junk, that’s a start.

About Terry

I started out as a skip tracer. Just in case you don’t know, that’s the guy who finds the people who don’t want to be found. It was the little things—getting paid to lie—that made skip tracing the fun part of the job.

Those years of chasing deadbeats taught me many valuable life lessons, such as liars come from all walks of life, and always keep your car in the garage.

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Comments

  1. Jane K says

    I use Charity Navigator to see what charities are good.
    http://www.charitynavigator.org/
    They give ratings and CEO salaries—a pet peeve of mine . No one should be enriching themselves while working for a charity. You can see how much of the money they take in goes toward helping those in need and where money is wasted.

    • Terry Ambrose says

      Good points, Jane. It’s a shame this is needed, but there are too many badly managed charities out there and this one does help to weed out some of those.