Charitable Donations Include Overhead – Here’s Why

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Brigid Slipka has granted permission to crosspost this great article from her blog.

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Here’s how to make a charitable donation and have 100% of the gift go to the Recipient without any part of it going toward overhead:…

A great example of a charity increasing its impact

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

There was an interesting story in today’s Salt Lake Tribune about a foodbank that found itself unable to keep up with the growing poverty problem in Utah. Their solution – they hired two part-time staff to identify programs…

Don’t Choose a Charity Based on Administration Costs

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Yesterday there was a flurry of twitter posts regarding the fact that charity: water advertises on their website:

100% of public donations directly fund water projects

The final outcome appears to be that charity: water uses other sources…

How to determine if an aid project is a good idea

Monday, May 17th, 2010

I’m still in Haiti so have not written any new posts, this post is a favorite that readers may have missed when it was originally posted.

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Most of us have heard of bad aid projects, but few of us…

Donor Education

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

I received an email from a philosopher recently with a link to his article An Appeal to Aid Specialists in which he makes a strong appeal to aid specialist to help non aid experts understand aid and make…

Good needs assessments are critical for good programs

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Needs assessments help determine if there is a need, what the need is, and if any other organizations are already working to meet that need. Without first conducting a needs assessment, funds could be wasted on the wrong type of…

How do you know if an organization deserves your donation?

Monday, February 15th, 2010

With 1.2 million registered nonprofits in the United States alone, and a new one registered every 15 minutes, choosing the right one to give to can be daunting. To help you with these decisions, I’ve developed a step-by-step system that…

Will we repeat the mistakes of the last disaster?

Monday, February 8th, 2010

This is an updated and edited version of a previous post

Reading ALNAP’s Responding to earthquakes 2008: learning from earthquake relief and recovery operations reminded me of a common problem in the aid world – conducting evaluations and…

Choosing organizations to donate to after the Haiti earthquake

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

I’m opening this blog up to advice from aid workers to donors on choosing which organizations to donate to after disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti. What type of organizations should they look for and what should…

How is the sweater your aunt Martha gave you similar to charitable donations?

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

What’s the worst present you ever received? A crazy colored sweater from your aunt Martha, questionable cookies from a neighbor, a tacky decoration from a coworker. We’ve all received those types of gifts, but have we given them as well?…