Researching Charitable Organizations: Our Family’s Story
Several years ago, a priest spoke at our church about becoming part a charity that allows you to financially sponsor someone in a developing country. I don’t remember many of the specifics that he shared but I do remember that we – as a family — were moved.
After the Mass, pictures and brief bios of those needing sponsors were displayed in the lobby of the church. As we tried to choose a friend for our family to sponsor, an issue arose:
Jovita
Orlando
The charity we were becoming a part of — the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA)– looks for sponsors not only for children, but for aging adults as well.
My son wanted to sponsor a child. But my daughter wanted to sponsor an adult, as she has always enjoyed being around the elderly more than children. (I’m not sure what this means for my prospects for grandkids, but I’m comforted to think I’ll be well cared-for in my old age.)
My husband and I agreed to pay two monthly sponsorship fees, and the kids agreed to correspond with the friends we would sponsor, both of whom were from the Philippines.
Where Does Your Money Go?
Fast forward three years or so and we’ve had a good experience with CFCA. We regularly receive letters from our sponsored friends and the kids write back. (One of our sponsored friends, Orlando, starts his letters to my son with, “Dear Uncle Grant.” He even sent us his report card in the last letter.)
But my son has, over the years, wondered how we could know that our sponsored friends are the people that actually write/dictate the letters to us? And how we could know that they’re receiving the money we’re sending?
Those aren’t bad questions and they’re ones that have crossed my mind too.
At the risk of being cynical, when you send your money off in blind faith to CFCA — or any other organization — you just hope that it’s reaching the people for whom it’s intended.
Evaluating Charities
We had become a part of CFCA through our church, so I had a certain amount of confidence that someone had done due diligence, but I had never actually done any myself.
So recently I went online to Charity Navigator – a website that evaluates charitable causes based on their performance in two areas:
- Financial health
- Transparency and accountability
I was relieved to see that the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging has a four star (exceptional) rating from Charity Navigator.
That’s the highest rating that Charity Navigator awards and – according to the site – it means that CFCA “exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause.”
I also looked up another organization I have blogged about: Kiva. Kiva also has a four star rating.
And then I started taking advantage of all the ways you could look for information on the Charity Navigator site.
Page 1 of 2 | Next page