8. Where to find charities and what to ask

Send us Fan MailToday's episode is about where to find charities and what to ask. Here's the letter:How should I research a charity to decide if I want to give to them? Where do I look and what questions should I be asking myself?Start by asking yourself your budget and your financial requirements.For example, is it important to you that you claim tax benefits from your donation? Is that even realistic for you given the standard deductions? If you think you’ll be donating less than that threshold this year, that might free you up from having to worry about whether or not the charity is a 501c organization, which means that they have filed paperwork with the IRS and have agreed to comply with the various legal requirements involved in keeping up their tax exempt status.There are some wonderful initiatives around our country that have not filed for 501c status. So you may have opened up even more options for yourself to find the people who are doing the work you are passionate about.After you’ve figured out your budget and whether or not tax deductions are important to you, now it’s time for the fun part- thinking through your values and your priorities for the year.I would encourage you to take some quiet time, pour yourself a warm beverage, maybe in the morning before your day starts, or in the evening if you get a moment to yourself, to reflect on the topics that really speak to you. When you read the news, which articles are the ones that you always read? When you read or listen to someone’s autobiography and they talk about the challenges they’ve faced, which ones really tug at you? What do you feel like are the most important, most overlooked types of help that are needed? Who is overlooked? These are some questions that start that brainstorming for you.And these priorities can change over time as you change and as the world changes. For you, it might be that you are committed to being a better ally to the people in your community. That can be an amazing way to think about your giving. And on this show, in addition to talking about donating, we also talk about your spending and investing. Being oriented around your local community is an amazing way to orient how you use your money in all 3 of these ways. You can do some google searches to find out what local initiatives are going on that need financial assistance in your city. Even if you’re not religious, you can connect with local religious institutions to find out what programs they know about. They tend to be connected to what’s going on locally.If you’re somewhat new to giving, I would suggest picking two or three places to give this year and getting that experience. Maybe one small and one medium charity. Set up reminders on your calendar, or auto deductions from your banking account to send donations every month, or every quarter. I’ve seen people donate on their birthdays and I do think that’s great, but, for many of us, once a year isn’t enough frequency to make it a regular part of our practice. So I’d start with monthly or quarterly, and again, either set up reminders on your calendar or set up auto-deductions. So, those are the 3 fundamental questions to ask yourself- 1) your budget 2) your priorities 3) your strategy of going wide versus deep.The other part of your question was where to research information about charities. There are so many sites that are set up as charity evaluators and none of them are perfect. We'll talk about limitations in today's episode.To receive a guide to help decide on your priorities, email the show at [email protected] submit your letter to the show, email [email protected] support the showSupport the show