Please help me give money away!

December 12, 2005 8:49 PM

I have the opportunity to select the recipient for a very large charitable donation. GuideStar's products helped me find a list of eligible candidates, but it's still too long to meet with every possibility. How do I narrow the field without wasting an enormous amount of time and energy? The amount of money involved makes choosing randomly seem irresponsible.
posted by I Love Tacos to shopping (15 comments total)

Reading Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder convinced me to donate to Paul Farmer's Partners in Health. Charity Navigator lets you search for good charities ... and PIH rates very highly.
posted by lukemeister at 9:20 PM on December 12, 2005

What do you care about? You have a lever in your hands, what rocks do you want to move?
posted by LarryC at 9:31 PM on December 12, 2005

I also have heard very good things about Charity Navigator. I like the breakdown of how they use the donations for admin versus actual services provided.
posted by mickbw at 9:42 PM on December 12, 2005

Stay local? That way you can get a lot of background info using contacts you probably already have.
posted by fshgrl at 9:44 PM on December 12, 2005

What would be the intended purpose of the donation? Would the donor like to support overseas aid and development? Disaster relief? Community development and poverty alleviation at home? Animal rescue? The arts?

Has the donor made donations to a particular charitable organization in the past?

If the donor's interested in supporting development projects in the Himalayas, I volunteer with the Trans-Himalayan Aid Society, a Vancouver-based NGO founded in 1962. We started out supporting relief and development for Tibetan refugees who had fled to Nepal and India; we later broadened our scope to help the host communities as well. The projects are proposed and implemented entirely by local partner organizations, so that they're based on actual needs rather than what we think they need.
posted by russilwvong at 9:49 PM on December 12, 2005

I've used charity navigator. It's essentially a less-detailed version of the GuideStar premium website.

While the main problem is finding an efficient way to sort through seemingly worthy organizations (rather than finding candidates), I'll list off the primary criteria that were used to choose a preliminary list. If this looks like an organization that you're passionate about, feel free to mention the thing you care about.

Possible Causes: Global health issues, Civil rights issues (international)

Location: Strong preference towards greatest need locations, which are generally international.

Size: a smaller organization, where the donation could make a significant difference is preferred.

Mission: Their mission must be very clear. Must have verifiable achievements, and measurable goals.

Intended Use: Organization must be able to demonstrate that they have the ability to use the donation effectively, and provide a specific project or projects which would be made possible.

Religion: Charity may be based on a religion, but may not proselytize.

Politics: see religion.

Efficiency and Transparancy: Organization must spend money efficiently for the given sector, and have the paperwork to demonstrate that this is the case.

Specific organizations: The donors have no specific organizations in mind, as this donation is significantly larger than previous ones. It's felt that previous selection methodologies are inappropriate for gifts of this size.

As it stands, I have a long list of organizations that appear to fit these goals (from what is available without taking a lot of time to meet with all of them individually), and I'm wondering if anybody has experience with how to proceed.

Is there such a thing as a reasonably unbiased charitable gift consultant, who might have more background info, or better ways to help sort the wheat from the chaff?

Additionally, when we get the point of discussing this with the organizations, is there anything we should be proposing to further leverage the donation? (donation-matching to existing donors or what not) or is that outside the purview of the giver?
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:22 PM on December 12, 2005

I'm betting The Foundation Center will be able to help you. Not sure whether they deal with international orgs but if not, they should be able to give you some suggestions.
posted by vetiver at 10:41 PM on December 12, 2005

The California Community Foundation might help if you’re a local and they may know of similar organization elsewhere if that’s what you need.
posted by firstdrop at 10:44 PM on December 12, 2005

So there's nobody you've given to previously that's impressive enough to merit this larger donation? It may be nice if you could build on an patronage instead of jumping into an untested one. You kind of get a sense of what an organization is like after your initial involvement; it's easier to pick up on efficiency and accomplishments after a period of receiving updates and observation. Plus, it's easier to be passionate about your philanthropy when you're confident in the charity you support. No website or mission statement you read will tell you that--for example--no recent executive director has kept the post for over ten months.

One lump donation is nice, the donation and its impact is more exalted, and I'm only assuming splitting up the donations doesn't mess up the tax deduction if the net donated is the same. However, is diversification a possible option to consider? As with any investment, it hedges the risk that a large sum of your money will end up somewhere you regret. Perhaps there are two organizations out there you could support?


a different option: since you have a very long list, pick a random sampling of your list that wouldn't be an unreasonable size to investigate. Chose the best charity out of your researched subset.
posted by neda at 11:28 PM on December 12, 2005

A quick Google search for an FAQ for grantmakers didn't find much, but I did find a website for grantmakers: Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Supports (WINGS). Their publications appear to be targeted towards foundations rather than one-shot donations, but if it's a large enough donation, the issues you're facing are similar to those faced by a foundation which makes grants to charitable organizations.

Possible Causes: Global health issues, Civil rights issues (international)

Location: Strong preference towards greatest need locations, which are generally international.

This combination immediately makes me think of Africa and infectious diseases: malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, sleeping sickness.... Of course this might not narrow the list of candidates that much.

May not be directly relevant, but this recent New York Review of Books story ("The Lost Children of AIDS", Helen Epstein) discusses a South African charity which helps AIDS orphans, and how US foreign aid doesn't help it much. It's a cautionary tale. (Followup exchange of letters.)
posted by russilwvong at 12:03 AM on December 13, 2005

So there's nobody you've given to previously that's impressive enough to merit this larger donation?

Not in these particular fields. The only large gifts any of the parties have given previously were for completely different causes. The smaller gifts in the field were given somewhat capriciously, with no due diligence.

However, is diversification a possible option to consider?

The primary plan is actually to give one large, and two smaller donations, unless one of the chosen organizations presents a particularly compelling case that they could do something unexpectedly spectacular with the extra money.

Right now I'm trying to get a good grasp on the project before my meetings with a few more experienced philanthropists. It would seem a terrible shame to get a meeting with somebody with vast knowledge, but to arrive without good questions.
posted by I Love Tacos at 12:48 AM on December 13, 2005

You probably want to narrow down your focus a little more before you meet with a professional. Find out if your donors have any personal affinity for a particular country or specific cause. If you want to do something truly spectacular, you should find a local hands-on effort to support.

For example, my mother is a doctor and does volunteer work in Haiti. Medical supplies and equipment are purchased in the U.S. and transported to a clinic (built with U.S. donations) where the volunteer doctors and nurses set up shop for a few weeks to provide free medical care to anyone who needs it. Several Haitians were recently hired to staff the clinic year-round. They are always swamped with people in dire need of help.

If you decide to donate to global health efforts, take a look at nonprofit clinics like those run in Haiti by Partners in Health -- I see lukemeister already recommended them. You will be shocked to see how many lives can be saved or greatly improved with a few dollars.
posted by naomi at 6:55 AM on December 13, 2005

Two things:
1. Healthlink Worldwide fits your criteria of Global Health, small org, transparent, efficient, the money will make a huge difference. They are UK based (don't know if that bothers you, or where you are based). They do all their work by partnering with grassroots orgs in developing countries.

2. Is there such a thing as a reasonably unbiased charitable gift consultant, who might have more background info, or better ways to help sort the wheat from the chaff?

Yes! One good one is Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. They will provide a range of services, depending on what you want. Anything from researching/suggesting orgs, telling you about ways to give (your questions about matching funds, specific projects, etc). I suggest poking around their website. I am not sure how much money you are giving or how much RPA would want you to be giving to make it worth their time, but they provide exactly the service you want.
posted by cushie at 7:28 AM on December 13, 2005

Create a Donor Advised Fund with your nearest Community Foundation. That way you can parcel out the donation in pieces and over time, allowing you the opportunity to think about what you want that money to do.

Don't think in terms of organizations, think in terms of needs, pick one or several and then ask your Community Foundation for help. They will do a lot of due diligence and take the time consuming work down an order of magnitude.
posted by leafwoman at 9:00 AM on December 13, 2005

Thank you all for your advice. We ended up using a portion of the funds to create a donor advised fund, and giving the rest to a single organization who made a compelling case that they had a worthy cause, and that the money would be well spent.

The specific charities you've all suggested look excellent, and I've made a small donation to each as a token of my appreciation.
posted by I Love Tacos at 4:39 PM on December 21, 2005