Mr. Middon and I are in the enviable position of not really needing the stimulus money we should be getting soon. We’ve decided to donate it, but are having difficulty deciding who to give it to.
Here are our guidelines for choosing:
Organizations, not individuals. If we had family members that really need the money, we’d give to them – but we don’t. We’re not interested in giving to someone’s nephew or whatever, no matter how much they need it.
We want to give only to organizations that we trust. In general, this means orgs that are highly rated on Charity Navigator.
We’d like the money to help people who have been hurt by the pandemic.
We’re not religious people, so we would avoid giving to a church-sponsored charity.
Some weeks ago, we had thought that maybe we’d give some to First Responders First, which was touted on The Daily Show as a way of helping get PPE to nurses, doctors, etc. But they aren’t rated on Charity Navigator, and we are no longer certain the need for PPE is still so high.
It’s almost definite that we’ll give some to our local food pantry to help out families who can’t afford to feed themselves. (We give an annual donation to our local food bank, but have decided to give to the food pantry this time.)
So, who else should we consider? What worthy organizations would you donate to?
Our local food bank, Northern Illinois Food Bank, is part of the FeedingAmerica network. Since we give to NIFB annually, we thought we’d go more local by supporting the food pantry.
But, then, I don’t know which is better. Certainly our local food pantry is hurting right now. But we live in a community which has a pretty high percentage of households that aren’t needy in the least. Maybe our money is better spent by giving to FeedingAmerica or NIFB, where it can go to communities that don’t have many households in a position to give to them.
I’m interested in doing this too, though I’m not limiting myself to officially rated charities, as that ends up being really limiting. So far I’ve been donating to a few orgs and buying things online from some small businesses, some of which are doing some charity work during the shutdown. I think sometimes keeping contributions local is a better bulwark against waste and fraud. There’s one local restaurant that’s donating meals to hospital workers; I feel comfortable giving to them because it’s run by the family of someone I know personally. But I’ll be following this thread for other ideas.
That’s what I was thinking; I live in a really high-income part of the country (though I’m on the lower end of the income scale for the area), but know other parts of the country are probably much worse off.
BTW, regarding this, I question whether the lack of PPE is because of a lack of money; some of the hospital systems are massive multi-billion dollar non-profit enterprises. I assume they are buying as much as they can get their hands on?
I gave money to my local food bank. There are plenty of people around here who need it, even if we are generally a high income area. Or you can donate to a food bank in a close by low income area.
I also gave some money to the Tenement Museum in New York. An article in the Times said they were hurting. The have to maintain a bunch of buildings which are historical treasures, and they don’t have an endowment or lots of rich donors. We went when we did our New York stay, and were very impressed. Plus, my father grew up in that neighborhood - in a tenement - so I feel a bond.
There might be local museums that could use some help now.
You can consider ways to give money that helps two-fold in your area. Some things I’m seeing happening here, that I’m giving money towards:
The local high school has a program that sends food home to kids on the weekends who rely on free lunches during the week. Even though we live in a high-income area, they still serve over 100 kids a week and numbers have grown lately.
Buy gift cards for local businesses (restaurants, hair salons, nail salons) and give them to an organization that can pass them out to others. You help local businesses and local people.
Buy mask-making materials for people who are making masks. There are people out there who would like to help and have the skills, but can’t front the materials.
Purchase DVDs and games for local assisted living facilities to give people who are stuck there something else to do.
Contact your city and ask how you can sponsor a catered meal or three from a local restaurant for first responders who are still working.
I’ve already done this, and laud you for realizing that you don’t really need the stimulus money and want it to go “somewhere useful.” Your criteria for disposition are good. But I have another suggestion. I received my stimulus payment a week or so ago and the next day visited pay.gov to pay down the national debt.
Congress and President Trump manufactured 2.2 trillion dollars that we taxpayers, or our children, will be saddled with. I thought it wise to try to negate some of that impact.
Political statement? Yep. But I think it was the right thing to do in my situation.
My company was offering some matching funds for a few curated organizations, so that was my first stop for donations outside of my usual cycle. But I want to give that article another look for our next round.