Donating to Charity: 3 Things to Research Before Choosing a Charity

Even though breast cancer gets the most publicity during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, charities work all year to fund-raise for the treatment, cure and prevention of Breast Cancer.

One in eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime – that means that you or someone close to you will be affected in your lifetime.

This means that supporting research for breast cancer is not just giving back to the community, to an important cause. It is helping the women of your family get one step closer to being able to survive a heartbreaking disease that too many of them will face.

“Choosing the right charity to donate to can be confusing, unless you know what to look for.” says Candice Betty, Director at Organic Radiance Skincare.

“When choosing which charity is a good fit for you, you’ll want do your homework… Make sure your money isn’t going to a charity that spends a lot of its donations on fundraising or administrative costs.”

What does doing your homework look like?

Evaluate these 3 areas to determine if the charity will use your money wisely:

1. Financial health of the charity
2. Accountability and transparency
3. Results

Doing your research before choosing a charity can be time-consuming.

At Organic Radiance Skincare, we trust these three websites to research charities, summarize, and rank them according to the above three standards:

www.charitynavigator.com

www.guidestar.com

www.wisegivingalliance.com (operated by Better Business Bureau)

 

1. Examine the charity’s financial health

• Program Expenses: Look for charities that spend at least 75%of their expenses on their research or programs. Administrative costs and fundraising should not be more than 25% of the total expenses
• Professional Fundraisers: How much money goes toward professional (for profit) fundraising firms? If a nonprofit uses a professional fundraiser, then a portion of your donation will go to that for-profit fundraising firm and not to the charitable programs/services that you intend your donation to fund
• Executive Pay: Charities are required to report the CEO’s pay and any employees making over $100,000 per year. The average compensation for a CEO is about $130,000 annually, and this will vary depending on geographic location and how large the organization is.
• Growth of Revenue and Program Expenses: Is the organization growing? Make sure that the charity’s growth is at least keeping up with inflation and not cutting back spending on the programs you want to support.

2. Accountability & transparency of the charity

• Website: The best charities are transparent and accountable to the public.
• Respecting Donors: Find out if a charity has a donor privacy policy. Selling of donor’s personal information is common among large charities to expand their donor base and increase awareness of their group – make sure you “opt-out” to avoid this.
• Read the news: Do a quick search for news to see if the charity has been involved in any questionable practices.

3. Investigate the charity’s results

• Accomplishments: Learn about a charity’s accomplishments, goals and challenges by reviewing its website. They should discuss the quality and depth of their results as well as their capacity to continue to get these results, not just the number of activities or people served.
• Reviews & Formal Evaluations: Look for formal evaluations written by external objective third parties and reviews of the organization.
• Constituent Feedback: Does the charity collect and publish feedback from the people who benefit from it?

Ways to Donate to a Charity

Once you’ve decided on a charity or organization that donates proceeds to your favorite charity, visit the organization’s website directly, or do it in-person at a local event. Don’t respond to email solicitations, as there are scammers who will try to take advantage of philanthropists.

Make sure that companies list the amount donated for each sale of their product and that their products don’t contain chemicals known to cause breast cancer, a practice called pink-washing. If ingredient lists aren’t listed on a company’s website, send the company an email requesting ingredient lists for their products, and most companies will be happy to provide them.

At Organic Radiance Skincare, we donate to charities because we believe in the cause and giving back to society. Donating makes us feel good. We want to help those in need and make the world to be a better place for our children.

None of this can happen if the money we donate to a charity is not used as we intended. Before you give, do your homework so your money can make the most impact.

During the month of October, we will donate 10% of proceeds from doctor’s offices and on-line orders to one of the top-rated breast cancer charities, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Please join us this October in donating to a reputable breast cancer charity of your choice.

Join us in shopping wisely, choosing brands that do not contain chemicals that cause breast cancer, brands that donate toward breast cancer, as a way to increase the number of breast cancer survivors without spending any additional money.