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| 7 Charities You Should Think Twice Before Giving Money To |
| Written by Griff Hanning |
| Friday, 02 July 2010 02:54 |
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Believe it or not, there are plenty of charitable organizations out there who are not spending the money they receive in an efficient manner. In fact, some of these organizations start to look more like a business than a non-profit. The top staff start getting executive pay, the board of directors accept large benefits, and the organization has adopted the philosophy of "spending money to make money." Now, this is not to say that these types of charities are not making an impact on whatever community they are serving, but it is saying that they are not using their resources as effectively as possible. Here is a list of 7 charities that fall into this category of irresponsibility according to Charity Navigator who keeps track of thousands of charities' IRS disclosure statements and analyzes them to educate donors: 1. Tucson Audubon Society: Administrative expenses: 42.8%
Striving to protect birds across the US, this organization spends more on it's offices and executives than it does on the birds.
2. New Hampshire Audubon Administrative expenses: 42.8%
Similar to the Tuscon Audubon Society, NHA has seen a drop in donations the last few years and has had to allocate more money towards administration than to the birds it strives to protect.
3. Gospel to the Unreached Millions (GUM) Administrative expenses: 43.1%
Not only is their administrative expense so high, but their fundraising expense is also at a whopping 38%, which means that they only were able to use a total of 18% of their $1.5 million budget to spread the gospel internationally.
4. American Psychiatric Foundation Administrative expenses: 43.7%
This 43.7% translates into over $500,000 in administrative costs per year.
5. Marshall Heights Community Development Organization Administrative expenses: 44.1%
MHCDO is a charity in Washing DC that aids impoverished people in the city. Part of their operational inefficiency is due to it's development of housing facilities, large office space, and a large salary of $137,000 going to it's president, Michael Watts.
6. Please Touch Museum Administrative expenses: 44.9%
As a museum who targets the education of children age 7 and below, in 2008 they used only $2 million of their $24 million revenue to reach out to the community around them.
7. Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics Administrative expenses: 45.4%
They play a large role in shaping U.S. economic policy in Washington DC and had a revenue of $10 million in 2007. The majority of it's money is used to run the organization instead of furthering its goals of being an objective research organization.
I don't mean to persuade you one way or another in regards to giving money or time to these types of organizations, because I really don't know and cannot measure their effectiveness in the communities they serve. But the point of this article is to encourage you to do some research before giving money to charity. Make sure that they organization is doing everything possible to distribute funds efficiently and that the majority of fund is going directly to their goals, not the administration. What are your thoughts? Do you know any other organizations that are not good stewards with the resources they are given?
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