Charity begins....everywhere

We belong to a church which, through relations with a priest from it's past, is aligned with a kid's housing and schooling charity spread through various horrifically poor countries in South America. Because of that they hold an annual fundraising dinner which raises enough money to run a small city.

 In one dinner.

 Over $50,000 is raised at that dinner, excluding the auction items, to help run the homes. These auction items ranged from handmade art and wines to more wonderfully, immediate things like Baseball playoff tickets and a Willie Mays signed ball (which I lost.)

 And despite the promise of the rubber chicken dinner the Mexican themed food wasn't bad.

 This is repeated throughout the US with varying degrees of effectiveness, Some charities are run like mom and pop stores while others have vast networks of staff and professional fundraisers.

 NCCS stats from 2010:

 Number 1,014,800
 Number File with IRS 507,589
Total Revenue 1,376,134,817,210
 Total Assets 2,479,799,049,073

Note: Excludes out-of-scope and approximately 900 so-called "mutual benefit" public charities

 A MILLION charities! Charitable/non-profit status is a wonderful, coveted thing, with over a million charities and other non-profits with over a trillion dollars in revenue and double that in assets.

 Some are charities which are well established givers, like the Red Cross or Salvation Army. And then there's the NFL. Yup. The billion dollar NFL, whose CEO psys himself $44 million a year and whose office are in the centre of Manhattan is a registered non-tax paying non-profit.

 But how can you tell the good from the bad, knowing that your money is going to good uses, not just admin? Well there is help at hand with, amongst others: www.charitywatch.org
 Which of course, is a non-profit charity itself.

 It rates companies according to various criteria, including accountabilty, effectiveness of giving on an A-Z scale.

 The big boys like Red Cross and, yes, Livestrong, get straight A's. And some guys get straight F's, like the heart string tugging named "Childhood Leukemia Foundation." At the least, they provide jobs for people so they can't be all bad?

 Many sports players in the states have foundations of various effectiveness which have the triple effect of giving back, tax deductibility and giving the athlete something to do after their immediate sporting fame is gone. Most consist of a golf tourney or so where old players get to mix with business men for a mutual back rub. And there's nothing wrong with a good back rub.