Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Help? Charity related.
Background: H grew up poor. He's lived in 5 or 6 different states, constantly moving from one rental to another because his parents were always running from people they owed money to. His mom made minumum wage, his dad never worked and was (is) an alcoholic. He has 2 brothers and 1 sister. He ate Thanksgiving dinner at homeless shelters. He even lived in a YMCA for a while.
He has done very well for himself and has decided he wants to start giving back. Yay. However, he is very particular and picky (and jaded? He just told me on the phone that he thinks "every charity has dirty hands". He also wants every penny of the money he donates to actually help the person in need, not get wasted on unnessecary spending along the way.)
He has more money than time to give, so he wants to start donating to a local charity. Preferably one that helps children in similar situations that he grew up in. (In a perfect world, he would want 1 kid assigned to him that he could give the money to directly, be in contact with, get letters and pictures and updates, etc, but I don't think that is feasible.)
Do you know of any such charities? Or have any ideas on where we could start looking? I'm lost.
Re: Help? Charity related.
If he wants that sort of relationship, maybe a mentoring program would work best - even though you said he has more money than time.
Ironically, he wants to get updates, and yet wants "every penny" to go to the person in need. He does know that all those updates cost money to print and administer, right?
I don't mean to be snarky, I just work for a nonprofit so I know what it takes to get things done with accountability and sustainably.
No, I don't think he understands that. In his mind, he wants to be hooked up with a needy child, and then just deal directly with that needy child. My H is a very simple minded man.
I was thinking a Big Brother/Big Sister type of relationship is more of what he wants in his mind, but he just can't physically do that with the time demands of his job and own family.
Through work we always give to St. Vincent Charities. It's mid-michigan based and Catholic, not sure if that matters. St. Vincent de Paul might be a statewide charity you could check into.
On my own I give to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. That might not fit the criteria YH is looking for, but it involves helping kids.
You can check with a local church about finding a family to donate to. This time of year at work we "adopt a family" and buy presents for the children. It's probably too late for this year, but next year you could check into adopting a family for yourself. That would give YH the satisfaction of giving directly to a specific person or family. You could check with the Salvation Army on this kind of thing as well.
If he wants to make sure that every penny goes to the charity then have him buy items from the organization's wish list. It could be something small or it could be a larger item that most likely the charity would not get if it weren't for the in-kind donation. A lot of time, they will have their wishlist right online (although Big Brothers of Lakeshore doesn't as I just checked).
It is my goal to buy something for someone or something off a group's wish list every month, even if it is as little as $25.
If he can't committ to a regular volunteer schedule, he could at least look into helping at special events. Big Brothers has a big bowling tournament every year. He could form a team or help at the event. Every year, my friends and I would make dinner for the Ronald McDonald House. Maybe some foster groups homes would let you bring meals or treats to them.
And, like Wendy pointed out, groups do need to spend money on adminstrative cost to keep their doors open. Often that is the hardest area to get money for, because grants usually fund programs or start-up costs and people don't want their donations to go to that. He can go online to Guidestar.com (Wendy, please correct me if I am wrong) and check to see how the orgainzations spend their monies. The general rule of thumb is 80/20. 80% of funds should be mission related (programs, staff to run those programs, etc.) and 20% for adminstirative/fundraising expenses. You could even go up to 70/30.
Based on where you live, I'd check with Love, Inc. to see what their needs are.
I'll but in on this one. Any company that is recognized as a non-profit organization by the IRS files a form 990 -- it's a 'tax return' for non-profits. These can be found on guidestar.com.
I agree to look and see the percentage, the 70/30 is the farthest I'd go. I audit non-profits, and see things that I find horrible for respected non-profit organizations. Having said that, I also see the need for administrative costs, to have funds help those in need.
Thank you SO much everyone!
We'll sit down this weekend and check out our options to find the best fit.