A Call for Charities

Last year, I donated a little bit of money to a couple of different charities.  And when I say little, I really do mean little.  I probably donated about $50 here at there at the cash register of my local grocery stores and pet stores.  I gave a bit of money to a couple of different charities at work.  I bought a couple of small gifts for the giving tree, and that’s about it.  My giving was unfocused and unresearched.  Most of the charities to which I gave don’t have any personal meaning to me, I don’t know anything about the way my money will be used, and in most cases, I can’t even remember the names of the charities. 

So this time around, I’m focusing my efforts a little more.  Rather than whittle away my giving dollars $1, $2, or $5 at a time through cash register donations, I am actively researching charities that do work I support, that are responsible stewards of the funds donated, and that make a real difference in the world.  I have a couple of charities on my list that mean a lot to me (a local no-kill animal shelter, for instance).  I have a pretty narrow world-view sometimes though, and so far my list of charities seems a little, for lack of a better word, unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  For example, I enjoy NPR a lot, and want to support them, but I have a hard time setting aside 50% of my giving budget to a radio news program when there are people starving all over the world.

So I would be interested to hear from my readers about their favorite charities.  Who do you give your money to?  I know that most of the people who read this blog probably give a good 10% (if not more) to the LDS church, and you can assume that if I know you’re LDS, then that’s a given.  I’m talking about the non-church related charities.  And how do you give?  Do you crochet blankets to send to third-world countries?  Do you give to micro-finance organizations.  Do you spend your weekends working on Habitat for Humanity projects?  Do you write a check or have a certain amount deducted from your account monthly?  Do you volunteer at the soup kitchen on the holidays?  And, more importantly, do you feel like your giving is actually appreciated by the recipients?  What giving do you do that you feel helps people get back on their feet and help themselves?  Or do you feel like it is more important to help those who simply can’t ever help themselves?

To help understand why I ask these particular questions, let me relate a story.  A few years ago, one of the wards that I attended had a service project where they went to the local Ronald McDonald House to prepare and serve a Thanksgiving dinner for the kids and their families stuck in the hospital over the holidays.  Great idea, right?  Well, the food was provided by the Ronald McDonald House, the House’s staff had done all the cooking, and all we were there to do was to stand behind the counter and dish out the food to the folks as they stood in line, like it was a school cafeteria.  In my mind, the RMH could have just as easily set it up buffet style, and done without 25-30 people standing around and getting in the way.  In fact, the feeling I got from the kitchen staff is that we were more of a nuisance than we were a help.  There weren’t even enough stations for everyone to have a chance to interact with the patients.  About half of the group stood back in the kitchen talking and joking, and never paying attention to the kids or their families.  Before the meal was even over, the group had disbanded to go back home with their families and enjoy their own Thanksgiving.  They didn’t mingle with/try to cheer up the kids, put on little skits or a talent show, or even help clean up the kitchen.  In the end, I heard several people say things like, "It really helps to remind me that other people have it so much harder than I do" or "This experience helped me feel thankful for the gift of health."  The whole purpose of the exercise, it turned out, was not to actually help people who needed it, but rather to serve as a reminder that other people had it worse off.  It was sterile, unimportant, and meaningless giving, in my mind. 

Don’t get me wrong.  If going to a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving and ladling out soup is really helpful, then I’m all for it.  But I’m not interested in sterile giving, or giving to assuage some sense of middle-class guilt.  I don’t want to give so I can remember how good I’ve got it.  Yeah, that may be a side effect of my participation or my giving, but that shouldn’t be the purpose for it.

So, readers, to whom do you give and why?  Help me consider a few options I’ve not considered before. 

This message is brought to you by the Matthew S. and Luke Q. Armstrong Foundation