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Does a contriibution like $1000 to a big organization like the American Cancer Society do anything to cure a disease?
Would it be better to donate to a more local charity? Do these national groups really help the little people?
Or are they just self serving using people's emotions to collect money for their own use?
Does a contriibution like $1000 to a big organization like the American Cancer Society do anything to cure a disease?
Would it be better to donate to a more local charity? Do these national groups really help the little people?
Or are they just self serving using people's emotions to collect money for their own use?
I don't know, and I suppose the answer could change from charity to charity.
Personally, I only give money now to local charities. For example, in my area, there are still people who are recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Local organizations often provide them with gift cards to home improvement stores. There are still thousands of folks who lost their homes and are in temporary situations who sometimes need food and paper good, etc., along with those in the same situation who were like that pre-Sandy. Usually the money or other items I donate goes directly to the people who need it and isn't wasted on "administrative" costs.
Two years ago I gave a small donation to the March of Dimes. I will never again give them--well, I wouldn't give them a dime. They spent the entire amount of money I gave them and then some sending me mail every week with address stickers and other crap trying to get me to send them more money. No money went to children with birth defects, and I do not believe that anything I gave them ever would go to children with birth defects.
You could always look on sites like Charity Navigator to gain more information about a specific charity to see where your money actually goes before you donate. For what it's worth, I'd rather donate to local charities directly, or volunteer.
Mightyqueen, I hear you about the address stickers and other fundraising materials. A while back, I donated to a children's charity and apparently got put on a bunch of mailing lists. I would receive address labels, notepads, envelopes with a nickel or a dime in it, and once an entry form from some children's cancer center to win their $1 million sweepstakes. I'd rather that million dollars go to the people who need it.
Seventy-two percent of funds colleced by the American Cancer Society go to services like patient support, research, prevention, detection and treatment. That's better than many other charitable organizations.
As the largest non-governmental funder of cancer research, having spent more than $3.8 billion on cancer research since 1946, the American Cancer Society can claim to have played a role in nearly every cancer breakthrough in recent history.
It undoubtedly IS helping people in your own community.
With all the money some of these organzations collect or get from the U.S. Govt., what difference does $1000.00 make to them? Yet some local people will work their hearts out on a road race, motorcycle race or bake sale to hand it over to a mega-corporation but yet no one seems to personally know anyone who benefitted from these big groups.
I do believe that local smaller charities need the funding more than the National charities.
With all the money some of these organzations collect or get from the U.S. Govt., what difference does $1000.00 make to them? Yet some local people will work their hearts out on a road race, motorcycle race or bake sale to hand it over to a mega-corporation but yet no one seems to personally know anyone who benefitted from these big groups.
I do believe that local smaller charities need the funding more than the National charities.
It depends on what you want your money to accomplish. If you want to contribute to major cancer research and the development of new treatments, a small local organization isn't going to get the job done. $1000 doesn't sound like much alone, but if the American Cancer Society gets that donation from hundreds of people, or even better thousands (and they do) it makes a real impact.
If you want to do things directly for your own local community, especially in the area of service provision (help for the poor, a local arts center or symphony, a youth center) then that's the type of group you should support.
As long as both are reputable, well run charities, both types of organizations are good options. It all depends on where and how you want to help.
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