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| Individuals | 43% | 80 votes | Total: 185 votes | |
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Add to FavoritesThe missionary I usually send my money to, lives and work in Africa, in a small village named Lira.
He takes care of the population there by the help he gets from his friends and family, and judging from the pictures he sends me, he is not doing very well at ll. He doesn't not complain though and has always words of thanks upon receiving the small donations we make.
Scandals over organizations meant to be at the services of poor people are too often in the news, and often forgotten. My theory is that it is far better to find an individual that really needs your help and convey your resources there. The feeling of helping an
"underdog" who has no bank account set up to receive the money, is far greater than the continuous doubt of giving money to an organization without knowing who is behind it really and who are the people that are handling the donations.
I remember in my childhood when my father taught me,trough the words of Jesus that it doesn't matter who you give your charity to, as long as you do it with an open hart and without bragging it to the four corners of the world. "May not your left hand know what your right hand does..." .
Growing old, I realized that there are a lot of sharks out there who are studying new and more sophisticated ways on how to attract that particular spot of our harts that lights up in periods of holidays like Christmas or Easter.
The conclusion is very easy to take, and there is no doubt in my mind that as hard of a search it may be, trying to find an individual who deserves you charity, at the end the reward and the feeling of having accomplished something really effective against poverty,fills the soul up and gives hope to the person receiving it.
When I drove a taxi in Florida, in the Fort Lauderdale area, in the eighties, I ran often into a black homeless person; he was a quiet, simple minded man in his forties. I began giving him something every time I encountered him by a seven eleven he used to hang around during the evening.He really never asked me for anything, but when I offered him my help, he never refused it either.
I helped him out as often as I could spare five,ten, twenty dollars. I did not care what he would do with the money, as long as he was not spending them in buying drugs or get drunk. I hate to say it ;the first times I gave him money I parked my cab where I could not be seen by him and saw that he was buying food with the money.
That was enough for me to keep my charity flowing into his direction, and I was really shocked the day I asked for his name.
He wasn't much of a talker and he kept to himself even if his wide eyes were talking much more than his mouth.
"Judas...my name is Judas."
Learn more about this author, Pio Dalcin.
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Foundations
FoundationsFoundatio nsFoundations When you know your market.
As part of the non profit I can tell you that there is always too much work to do and to little staff to do it. A lot of Non-profits have little if any fund development staff. Those staff members are often poorly trained and have to work other jobs. Why you ask? Okay I will spill the beans.
Part of how non profits are rated is determined by what percentage of their annual income foundations that give at least 80% of their income back in charitable programming. Okay then you look at the cost of having a Fund Development staff. All of this cost must be reflected as Fundraising expense. As well as the cost of their training. If you want a well trained staff, one that really knows how to fill out those grant forms then you need to send them for training. So in the beginning you will have a very high expense with very little to offset it. But that is for the first year only.
Just look at these results. In a bulk mailing campaign, addressing petitions to individuals in 14 counties surrounding a metropolitan area we spent $6000 on mailing materials and staff time and uncounted volunteer hours to raise about $30,000. Not the best of returns. Just think that most of the donations you receive in this economy are going to be about $20. Okay, you only get a response form one out of every ten that you send. The cost of the letter, bulk mail, return envelope, and return postage runs you about $1.00 a piece so for each item you mail, you are lucky to get $10.00 profit from it. If you are smart, you begin to weed out the ones that never respond and add new people who will hopefully donate to your list. There is also staff time required to obtain address, update list, look for new addresses, and remove the names of non responders. And let's not even go into the nightmares of accepting future pledges and the headaches of those.
In that same year we wrote one grant proposal alone that grossed us over $120,000 and had half cost to track the expenses as the annual mailing campaign. We have been doing the annual mailing campaign the same way for about 25 years. After the initial growth period, the results have stayed pretty much the same.
Why do you have to know your market? Because if you don't you will end up sending a lot of petitions to groups that either aren't truly looking to help your cause or are over burdened with request. You have to look for foundations that the same goal in mind that you do. Government grants are also a great way to go. You should also make sure that you are good following all of the rules and filling the forms out just the way they need to be done. Keep up with your tracking. There will be a learning curve but as time passes you will learn to go to the foundations that have been receptive to you in the past and how to network within those circles. Once you get your foot in the door with the people at these foundations and they know you the money will be easier and easier to obtain. In the end the long term goal is better met by using you time and resources wisely. It will eventually bring your percent charitable programming amount up. Therefore making you more attractive to those giving the grants and even the private donors.
Learn more about this author, Stephanie Jordan.
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