Lately I've been thinking about charitable donations. I think I've narrowed the issue down to a couple of questions in my head:
How much can you afford to give?
&
Who gets the donation(s)?
At the moment I'm not living in a world where some outside entity is telling me that I have to donate X% of income to charity. I am fairly sure though that an accountant could tell me what a reasonable and economically advantageous amount would be. To date I don't really feel like I've been giving enough. A while back there was someone on TV that was explaining how to divvy up your money into needs, wants, and savings. It seems to me that some set percentage of the "wants" amount would be a reasonable way to determine a charitable donation budget. That way you would stay secure, but also work in a little altruism.
So there's a way to properly judge an amount. But who gets it?
I'm not currently the member of a congregation, so there's one obvious answer crossed out right from the top. Although that's something that ought to be rectified (but that's a different post). There's still a long line though:
How about WQED, WDUQ, & WYEP for starters? And really should those be the starters?
Carnegie Mellon & The Yale School of Drama?
Apple Tree Theatre? The Yale Repertory Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival?
The ETCP, USITT?
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust?
The Ultimate Player's Association, Community for Pittsburgh Ultimate, Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League?
The Pink Bracelet Fund?
16 upstanding targets, and really not so much in the way of "charities" among them, albeit a few 501C(3) organizations. How much do you have to give to make it worth while? I guess it would be different for each organization. I'd been contemplating a biggish check to the ETCP. Maybe I'll have to string things out some. And that's without even knowing what the missus' list would look like.
Guess there's still quite a bit of thinking to do.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Who gets the money?
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2 comments:
when you have answers to your questions, then you should post those answers.
And M's list of organizations too.
I refuse to give money to CMU until I am done paying off my student loans in 2008. But otherwise, I try to give to organizations that mean something (like you appear to do). In my case, it's the public library, WDUQ (for NPR), organ donation causes, ALS, and Dan's schools. I also like to give to organizations that help the homeless, so I don't have to give spare change to every panhandler on the street. I'd rather my money went for food and shelter than for a fifth of Thunderbird. Perhaps elitist and snotty, but so be it. I refuse to donate spare change at those ever-increasingly-ubiquitous traffic-light collection points. I think they're unsafe both for the collectors and drivers, and so on principle I refuse to give there. I also will not donate to the Boy Scouts (or buy anything they're selling) and I try to avoid the United Way, both due to my personal ideological/political beliefs.
Every once in a while a specific event will trigger charitable impulses - the tsunami, etc.
It is hard to decide how much is enough. We try to use the ten-percent rule of thumb, but instead of giving it to a church we donate to the causes of our choice. We're not always successful at reaching that goal, but we give it our best shot. So at least you're thinking about it and doing something about it. It took some time to work out our best process, but it's worth it.
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