Donation Allocation
March 27, 2020 10:25 AM   Subscribe

I had been saving money for something that seems rather frivolous in light of the current state of affairs. I would now like to donate that money to help others who are impacted by COVID-19 and the economic fallout, but I'm having major analysis paralysis trying to ensure my funds make the best impact.

I have about ~$3000 to spend. It's a modest sum in the grand scheme of things, but it's enough to provide a significant amount of help to a small number of people or a little bit of help to a larger number of people.

These are some of the causes I'm considering:

1) Donating to local food pantries (demand is beginning to exceed supply in our area)

2) Anonymously sending gift cards or groceries to friends and acquaintances in my community who have lost their jobs for the foreseeable future (low income parents, friends in the service or entertainment industry who were already living hand to mouth)

3) Connecting with my local Mutual Aid society to help pay for requests as they pop up.

4) Donating to a larger regional or national organization

My questions are:
- Assuming that I cannot give to all of the potential beneficiaries listed above, what is the best way to determine who would be best served by my donation?

- Is it more beneficial to give to organizations or directly to people as I see needs arise?

- Is it more beneficial to spread the money out over a larger group of people/organizations (ex. $100 to 30 entities) or to focus and give more to a smaller group ($500 to 6 entities).

I'm not new to the world of individual philanthropy, but usually I donate small amounts ($10-20/month) to larger organizations. I've never been in the position to give a significant sum, and since there is so much need in the world right now, I want to make sure I'm intentional about this.

I am still employed and I have my own emergency savings, so I know that I definitely want this other money to go towards others.
posted by chara to Work & Money (14 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
If it were me I would wait until a cause comes along that makes me really excited and happy to be able to help. It's OK if it's not here yet. People are still going to be needing money in the future and it will be even more valuable when the donations start to dry up. I think that's the best way to make an impossible decision like this.
posted by bleep at 10:28 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I think you should ask yourself what "beneficial" means to you. Is your metric something like "reducing impact of COVID-19 globally/in your country/in your state/in your community" or "seeing people I know helped" or "seeing vulnerable people helped"? I think determining that metric is important. It's hard to determine "best impact" because personal interest is always conflated with charity. Notably, you have to want to contribute in the long haul for your charity to be sustainable and important. To be honest, most charity is not all that exciting. I donate a significant amount of money to Direct Relief, a particularly cost effective organization with a very broad mission (including COVID-19). I do so because one of my goals with my charity is to help those in the world who are most impacted by poverty and disease - not for any particular issue. However, Direct Relief is also one of the most pragmatic charities in the world - and that means their actions are usually more logistically useful than something I can personally identify with. It's quite unlikely I will ever even see a Direct Relief volunteer in my life. Although I think my donations are useful, they are also not particularly rewarding. It's always a bit challenging for me to continue to donate to them because I don't see any of their work - even though I know they are effective.

For the rest of this answer, I will answer based on what matters to me - which is likely not what matters to you.

1) Donating to local food pantries (demand is beginning to exceed supply in our area)

Please donate money and not supplies. Food pantries have access to industrial/large scale food producers and can buy food more effectively than you can. Further, food pantries continually have issues paying their employees and their rent - which they can't do with supplies.

2) Anonymously sending gift cards or groceries to friends and acquaintances in my community who have lost their jobs for the foreseeable future (low income parents, friends in the service or entertainment industry who were already living hand to mouth)
3) Connecting with my local Mutual Aid society to help pay for requests as they pop up.

I don't do these personally because I can't claim a tax benefit from it and because I don't consider myself an unbiased distributor of aid. The tax benefit matters to me because I'm in a high tax bracket and I can "stretch" my donation by a third by not paying taxes on it. The unbiased bit matters to me because I'm interested in helping people who are most impacted, not who I perceive to be impacted. However, neither of these may matter to you. Notably, you may consider paying taxes to be equivalent (or superior) to charity.

4) Donating to a larger regional or national organization

I try to donate to organizations that have as large scope as possible because they tend to be more cost-effective. It's easier to distribute aid across a broader area by utilizing large scale distribution systems compared to individual action.

- Assuming that I cannot give to all of the potential beneficiaries listed above, what is the best way to determine who would be best served by my donation?

Going back to my initial question - determining what matters to you will answer this question for you.

- Is it more beneficial to give to organizations or directly to people as I see needs arise?

In my opinion, individual aid to individual people is something that is personally rewarding, but not broadly effective. There are a large number of people that aren't perceived as being impacted but actually are. As an example, I know many more waiters than janitors. However, both are being laid off in roughly equal numbers around my area. I'd rather have an unbiased organization distribute aid equally compared to my biased personal view.

- Is it more beneficial to spread the money out over a larger group of people/organizations (ex. $100 to 30 entities) or to focus and give more to a smaller group ($500 to 6 entities).

I always bias towards larger amounts to fewer groups. Transaction costs are a thing and minimizing them stretches your donation further. In addition, many charities I've discussed this with have a more-or-less fixed per-donor cost for fundraising. It's been described to me (as a distinctly non-expert person) that the cost of raising a larger donation is about the same as a smaller donation - it's primarily to get the person to open their wallet, regardless of how much money they have in it. Having fewer donors reduces their fundraising costs.
posted by saeculorum at 10:56 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


We live in a small town recently ravaged by storms. If I were in your shoes I’d go with the anonymous gift cards to people you know could use the help. That way you would be impacting their lives in a positive way and they would get the immediate help they need.
posted by serendipityrules at 10:58 AM on March 27, 2020


That amount of money will have greatest impact locally where it can make a significant difference, so I would be reluctant to go for option 4. And, now that I think about it, you'd get absolutely the biggest bang for the buck if you were to do it in a way that it goes viral, where your act of kindness is at the very least heartening to the recipients and those who know what you did and, at best, inspires others to do something similar. For example, like when a chain of people at a drive-through end up paying for the person behind them in line.
posted by DrGail at 11:04 AM on March 27, 2020


For example, like when a chain of people at a drive-through end up paying for the person behind them in line.

This is... uh... a poor example given that nobody is individually benefited (the cost is on average the same for all people) and everyone perceives themselves as having done something useful.

Apologies for critiquing other answers - but this reasoning is why we should distinguish between useful and something that is performative philanthropy. As an individual, I recognize that my choices are biased by my own view as a non-expert who has no experience in disaster management. National charities have actual experts who can target aid where it is needed rather than where we perceive it to be needed.
posted by saeculorum at 11:07 AM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


Give 1000 now to a local food bank and then continue to give 50 a month. Those monthly contributions are key. And how thoughtful of you!
posted by biggreenplant at 11:07 AM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


I am nthing a money donation to food banks. They can use the money more than they can use the food, and demand in some areas has skyrocketed. I donated to one last week.

Also - if you are in a physical position to donate blood, I know that blood banks are getting critically low. I'm sure they could use your monetary donations as well.
posted by spinifex23 at 11:26 AM on March 27, 2020


Those monthly contributions are key.

Not exactly. Charities ask for monthly contributions because it tends to result in donors donating more money because they feel better, not because it's actually more effective philanthropy. Charities are not obligated to spend your donation immediately if it's not useful and (frequently) save it until it can be more effectively utilized. If you are going to donate a set amount of money, then donating it as a one-time expense as quickly as possible is most effective for the charity because it reduces their transaction costs and makes money available if it's needed immediately. If you do donate as a one-time donation, though, be clear with the charity not to follow-up with you or to expect further donations so they don't waste fundraising expenses.
posted by saeculorum at 11:31 AM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


If you can donate to a place that will help out undocumented people, that's useful because they can't get unemployment and I suspect most under-the-table jobs have dried up.
posted by needs more cowbell at 11:59 AM on March 27, 2020 [8 favorites]


Money donation to food banks and/or Meals on Wheels. Both have had astronomical increases in requests for help. I have a friend who is on the board of a community food pantry and they're in terrible straits because of COVID both radically increasing the need in the community and also forcing them to cancel a lot of their major fundraising events.
posted by quince at 12:23 PM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'd also go foodbank, I'd maybe also go a bit to cat protection as I'm a bit concerned no one can adopt cats at the moment so is there a backlog?

More importantly I would keep blob some in the frivolous. This could be a drag out effort and treating yourself well if you can do so without feeling guilty may turn out to have some benefits. Or combine with some giving close to home? Maybe get a subscription to online games for you and some friends so you can keep each other sane? Maybe drop a treat to a friend who seems strung out?
posted by biffa at 1:36 PM on March 27, 2020


Response by poster: Thanks for the recommendations so far. A few folks have mentioned some communities that may be overlooked/not eligible for government benefits (ex. undocumented workers, ). If anyone has suggestions about similarly marginalized populations, I would appreciate the info. I may not be able to personally donate to all of them, but at the very least I can raise awareness.
posted by chara at 3:10 PM on March 27, 2020


If anyone has suggestions about similarly marginalized populations, I would appreciate the info.

I asked our bestie about his recommendation for folks working with Indigenous populations living on reservations, and he said he's worked extensively with these folks and recommends them.
posted by joycehealy at 4:11 PM on March 27, 2020


I think in addition to undocumented people, homeless people are another group that are particularly vulnerable right now.
posted by geegollygosh at 9:39 AM on March 28, 2020


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