5 TIPS & TRICKS -MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR DONATIONS
Put your money where your heart is.

When it comes to donating your money and your time it's not uncommon to sometimes wonder where the money is going.  Is it being used for what they say/what you intended it for?  Are you being deceived or taken for a ride?  Educating yourself as a donor will increase the impact your contribution is making.

1- www.charitynavigator.org This site has been a godsend for me.  This is a nonprofit charity rating site which rates on a 4 star system based on financials and accountability & transparency.  What does that mean to you?  It means you can see how much the charity brings in, program expenses (the amount going directly to the cause), how much they spend on fundraising and how much return is generated by that fundraising.  Basically, whether or not they are doing a good job appropriating the donations.  You can also see the salary of their CEO and President, which will sometimes turn your stomach. While they do have 1.6 million nonprofits rated, not all that you search for will be listed.  This absence does not bear on the validity of what your researching but typically means they are not large enough to make it on this radar.  I could rave about this site for days, it truly is my humanitarian encyclopedia.   

2- Monthly donations vs. one time or annually.  Both have the pros and cons but if you have a particular cause you give to regularly you need to factor in what works best for them.  Typically the charity will get the most from your dollar with a one time or annual gift.  Monthly donations are great but you have to factor in the man hours caused by more paperwork and any fees incurred by them through their process of collecting funds.  I recommend monthly donations if you aren't great with your money and are worried that you won't put it back for the annual gift.  Most sites will prompt you to become a monthly and/or annual donor because this secures future donations and gives them projections of their future income. 

3- Get to know the organization's staff, when possible.  If you are in a position to get hands on with your chosen charity I highly recommend it.  You will learn things you never knew about not only their inner-workings but, equally important, the motivation of the staff they employee.  Are they motivated by the cause or are they there because it was a job?  There's some things you just can't learn on the internet or at fundraising events.  I once went to a volunteer orientation for an animal rescue.  I was pretty excited to be there and be involved until I started looking around the room.  Laptops  and over-the-top technology everywhere -obvious needless expenses stuck out left and right.  I then met the guy running the place and he seemed to be a total sleazeball.  I could have wasted money on this place for years.

4- Use the proper channels!  This is the number one mistake I see donors making day in and day out.  Do you know the guys on the street corners with signs that say something like "homeless - please help"?  Of course you do.  In my opinion there are many times when that sign should read "addict - please enable".  Sounds harsh but the reality is that many of those people are not actually homeless.  Begging and deceiving is their job.  If your cause is local hunger, and you want your money to feed genuinely homeless people, I recommend giving directly to the local soup kitchen or YMCA etc.  These are the types of places that the legitimately homeless go for a meal and other resources.  Some of the larger well-known nonprofits have also began using telemarketers to solicit donations for them.  What you're not told on the call is that a large portion of the money you donate is actually going to pay the fees charged by the telemarketing company.  I always recommend giving directly to a charity rather than using a third party.

5- Don't be afraid to move on.  Choosing to stop supporting a charity is not a break-up from your cause.  You are actually doing your cause a disservice by choosing to funnel money into something that you do not feel is benefiting them in the way that you want it to.  Follow the blogs, social networking pages and websites of those you support and you will get a birds eye view of the work they are doing and what your money is supporting.  This is especially important for international causes because you are less likely to be able to do the hands on approach mentioned above. 

I'm interested in any comments, questions and tips you have to add to this list!!