Six Tips for Holiday Giving

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Before you decide where to donate your hard-earned dollars this holiday season, make sure you’re getting the best philanthropic bang for your buck with these six tips.

1.    Be scrupulous. Look for annual reports (often posted on the organization’s website) to see how much money actually goes to the needy. You can also verify financials with online tools such as guidestar.org; charitynavigator.org; give.org, and charitywatch.org. Most analysts agree that an organization should be able to spend around 65 to 75% of their funds on the program.*
2.    Be wary of new organizations springing up in the wake of natural disasters. Haiti’s earthquake, Pakistan’s floods, Louisiana’s oil spill, and hurricanes all have us reaching for our checkbooks. But new groups may lack the resources, experience, and local roots to be as effective as others. Try to find a charity that’s established in the region or has a history working in emergency situations.

3.    Watch out for Grinches. Organizations that don’t offer their records, have names that sound too similar to well-known organizations (i.e. Children’s Charity Fund vs. Children’s Defense Fund) or make tear-jerking solicitations with few details about how the money is used should be examined carefully. If you are donating online, keep records, look for federal or state registration, and seek out phone numbers or other off-line contact info.
4.    Don’t let your giving create waste. If your gift is a one-time donation, make sure to let the organization know you don’t want to be on their mailing list.
5.    Give beyond your wallet. Organizations immersed in complex social, environmental, and economic issues have a deeper understanding of the systems that cause suffering. They will often have in-depth information, as well as suggestions on how to make choices in your daily life that help create a better world.
6.    Consider philosophy as well as impact. It’s natural to focus on measurable impact, and as a consequence neglect certain programs and organizations. For example, how do you quantify the results of mediation, the benefits of teaching nutrition to high-risk children, or the changes brought by investigative journalism (like Mother Jones)? If you are planning to donate to an organization that can’t easily measure its impact, consider the underlying philosophy of the program. In lieu of tangible results, you can compare the agency to those with similar missions, and consider the possible negative effects of its work. Groups that enable and empower long-term economic and environmental stability may not be able to tell you how many houses they’ve built, but they could stretch your dollar farther than other organizations.

*meaning expenses other than administrative and fundraising.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

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