This Is Why Some Charities Don’t Get My Support!
If your charity or non-profit has a CEO or Executive Director, I have probably not, nor ever will, donate any money to you.
Why do I make this statement you ask? Well first off take a look here. That is a link to the United Way Team of Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. There’s all kinds of people there with titles like “President”, “CEO”, “Executive Assistant”, and more.
It’s my opinion that any charity that can afford to permenently staff such positions is wasting my money. These positions are extremely expensive to staff. It’s not just the salaries that are expensive but in most organizations these are the people that waste the most money on travel, lunch and dinners, and most other expenses.
I’m also appaled when a CEO hires an “Executive Assistant” this usually means that they are lazy and don’t want to do the menial tasks themselves. If you can’t do your own work, it’s of my opinion that you aren’t qualified to do the job. There’s enough of these stuck up big wigs in other organizations and I won’t get myself involved in a charity that runs this way.
Take this United Way scenario for example. If you were to give them $100 of your precious, hard earned money how much would actually go to fund charitable work? Would it be 100%? Definitely not. It’s probably closer to the 50% mark because they need to pay these big wigs their fortunes.
I’ve always preferred to support local and small charities. For example, I’ve always helped out the food banks when possible. To me, these are the best charities to help out. First off, you don’t have to donate money, you can donate time and/or goods. Secondly, you know that your can of soup or box of cereal won’t be auctioned off and turned into cash for the executives. It will most likely be used properly and given to those who actually need it. In the town where I currently reside you can go to the local supermarket and purchase a pre-packaged food donation bag for $5, $10 or $15. This is a perfect way to help feed those less fortunate than us without having to give them the free-for-all option that comes with a cash donation.
I’ve also been upset in the past how the United Way goes about it’s fundraising. I am a former employee of the Province of Nova Scotia and there, the United Way would send on of their reps around trying to coax us into donating money on a per-paycheck basis. They wanted us to sign a form and give them access to our bank accounts to withdraw money every two weeks. They were even so pushy as to refuse to take back their forms. I would always tell them that I wasn’t interested but they kept insisting that I should change my mind and that they would leave me their paperwork in case I changed my mind. Needless to say, each and every time it ended up in the garbage and was a waste of a precious tree branch.
The other way I like to contribute to charities and non-profits is by volunteering my services or time. Since I am a computer technician by trade I’ve offered my technical services to some organizations in the past. This is a type of service that they would normally have to pay to receive so why not volunteer. It saves them money but doesn’t require that I donate any of your own to them.
I know this article sounds like a jab at the United Way (and it partially is) there are many other charities that have similar Modus Operandi. One of these “other” charities that comes to mind is the Children’s Christian Fund of Canada. These folks also operate in a similar manner. Just look at the amount of money they spend on TV advertisements and you’ll see where your money goes.
The point of this article is to make you think about your next donation. Why not consider donating something other than cold hard cash to these folks and see how long they are interested in you. If they accept your offer of time or services then they are probably worth supporting. If they do not, however, you should consider supporting some other organization that needs what you have to offer.
December 14th, 2008 at 11:52 am
This is an unreasonable stance regarding dealing with large charities like United Way. United Way is the largest charity in the U.S. and deals with a shit ton of money. $3.84 billion in 2007. 86% went to charity, 9% went to fund raising costs, and 5% paid organization salaries. The Halifax chapter you mention alone has a goal for 2008 to raise $5.8 million dollars. They supposedly try to keep their costs to United Way’s standard of 18% of donations, which in this case would be $1 million. Without even considering fund raising costs, that divided among the 20 people listed on the website would be $50,000 a piece, but keep in mind that operating costs also include rental of a building to house them and dozens more of paid and unpaid volunteers, utilities, marketing materials, etc. So, it’s safe to assume that most of these people aren’t making too much money, certainly less than most people would expect to paid for the amount of work that goes into similar organizational efforts at a for-profit company.
When I worked for Costco, United Way had someone come in and do around ten 30 minute sessions over a couple of days with the employees to encourage donations (one-time or divided per check for a whole year). Our one store alone with several hundred employees raised more money than some food drives raise annually, nearly $200,000. While it might seem like a bad thing for some “evil” organizational team to make a average living organizing these extensive fund raising tactics, the monetary gain that does make it to the actual individuals that need it is FAR, FAR and away more than a smaller pro-bono organization could ever hope to achieve.
I hope you reconsider your views.
-Some broke-ass jobless dude.
December 14th, 2008 at 11:55 am
PS - I totally respect the idea of donating to local charities, I definitely am not arguing against that. But when it comes down to it, it sadly does require some in-your-face motivation to get people to donate money these days, which large organizations like United Way and the Salvation Army can accomplish and 3-4 person local charities cannot.
December 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Thanks for your thoughts Yocto Yotta. Unfortunately, I still don’t think I am going to change my views on this but I do respect your breakdown of the funds and contrasting view.
As you’ll come to see I am not a fan of anything that has to do with a shirt and tie so I might be a bit biased when it comes to that but I just don’t want my donations even paying 18% of anyone salary. I want 100% of my donations to go to the cause that it was intended for.
Then again, the United Way funds various charities and organizations so I probably wouldn’t give money directly to United Way just for that reason. If you give just to United Way you might not even know when you are sponsoring.
Cheers!
Dennis
December 14th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I’m with you all the way on this, Dennis. I “only” give to local charities with the exception of the War Amps where I actually get something (besides a receipt) for my donation. Most of the donations are through recycling unwanted/unneeded articles (clothing, etc) which is picked up by the charity. I stopped giving to the United way a long time ago when they began getting their funding from Manitoba Lotteries. If they can get money from people that are bad at math, they certainly don’t need my money. Scratch and Sniff this United Way!
Charity begins at home,
Bob