Format: Article

We give for the benefit of others for many reasons. Among the most powerful is faith. This is certainly true of Islam. According to Islamic Relief USA, (a BBB Accredited Charity), Islam has the concept of zakat as a fundamental tenant. Zakat is Arabic for purification, growth and blessings.  It requires Muslims to donate a percentage of their wealth to those in need: http://irusa.org/zakat/. Yesterday, Muslims around the world began Ramadan, which is a time for fasting and reflection.  The mandatory act of giving to others will be on the minds of many during this period.  

In general, the greater one’s faith the more they give to charity. According to a 2013 study featured in The Chronicle of Philanthropy , people who regularly attend religious services give at a significantly higher rate than those who do not. 

While religion may influence the decision to give, there are certainly many choices for where and how to give. Yet relatively few people, religious or not, actually give with discernment or investigate the charities they support. It may be that the act of giving is enough to satisfy the donor. Whether or not the gift will fully address promised goals may be less important. Ultimately, donors trust that charities will give best efforts to accomplish their aims. The work we do helps to assure that the trust people have in charities is not misplaced. Charities should be purposeful to uphold trust by: 

• Having functioning and independent governing boards,
• Managing and reporting their finances,
• Distributing accurate fundraising appeals and other information, and
• Assessing their performance. 

When charities do this, they enable donors to give with confidence regardless of whether they are driven by religion.  

Video of the Week 

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we are pleased to provide a video featuring Paul Miles, President & CEO, We Raise Foundation (a BBB Accredited Charity) which provides grants in the Lutheran community that support the initial development of sustainable health and human care ministries. The organization reports having a special interest in nurturing new health and human care ministries developed by local congregations and new faith-based organizations. 

Recent Reports 

“We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• Coast Guard Foundation
• Friends of the Earth
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society 

Finally, remember to let us know by going to  https://give.org/charity-inquiry if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.   

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

One of the challenges for charities that use direct mail fundraising is to get the recipient to open the envelope. Whether a potential donor gets a large volume of direct mail or just a trickle, a charity has no chance of receiving a donation if the appeal is ignored. One attention-getting technique that has been around for a number of years is attaching a coin to the fundraising letter that can be seen through a window on the envelope. It catches donors’ eyes and makes them wonder: why are they doing this?  These mailings often explain how even small amounts of money – just a few cents per day – can make a difference in achieving the organization’s stated mission and ask donors to consider adding the coin’s face value to the amount they decide to donate.

Donors tell us they are put off by the use of coins in fundraising letters and complain about this practice as a perceived waste of the charity’s money. Donors recognize that charities usually send out a large volume of these types of appeals. Attaching a coin can add up to significant sums of money. While it could be argued that a penny or nickel has low value, the letter may claim otherwise as it seeks to encourage the recipient to make a gift.

Recently, we are seeing direct mail appeals attaching coins with larger values, such as a half-dollar. Charities that do this are taking a significant risk since donors can easily imagine 50 cents adding up to dollars very quickly. In addition, such larger coin amounts have the potential to place pressure on donors to return the money, especially if the direct mail appeal adds the coin’s value to the suggested donation levels.

Of course, as with all fundraising, we encourage donors to look beyond the marketing approach and find out more about the charity before making a gift. Visit Give.org to see if the charity meets the 20 BBB Charity Standards for Charity Accountability .

While some charities may justify this practice based on the appeal’s response rate, we hope they consider coin attachments very carefully, as they might just as easily raise eyebrows as well as funds and could result in losing more donors than they gain.

Video of the Week  

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we are pleased to provide a video that features an interview with Jaime Berman Matyas, President and Chief Executive Officer ,   Student Conservation Association , (a  BBB Accredited Charity).  They have been involved in building the next generation of conservation leaders and encouraging environmental stewardship since 1957.    

Recent Reports  

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit  Give.org  or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• American Lung Association
• National Audubon Society
• Patient Advocate Foundation  

Finally, remember to let us know by going to give.org/charity-inquiry if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.    

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

Forty-one years ago, during America’s bicentennial year − 1976, we introduced a printed list summarizing our evaluation of nationally soliciting charities in relation to the BBB Charity Standards. It was called “Give, But Give Wisely.”  The poster-sized publication was folded to fit into a regular business-size envelope and served as a means to spread our accountability information before today’s electronic alternatives. 

Twenty two years ago, in 1995, we became the first charity monitoring program in the nation to post its evaluative charity reports on the Internet. We always provided free access to these detailed reports which not only summarized our evaluation conclusions but also shared information on the charities’ mission, programs, governance, tax-exempt status, fundraising methods and finances. 

Although our website traffic on Give.org continues to grow, we continue to receive demand for our-hard copy magazine-style publication, now called the Wise Giving Guide, which is produced three times each year. Despite the fact that the cover story for this magazine is available online, some people prefer the ability to review a hard copy alternative, particularly older donors, who don’t rely on computers or laptops as much as younger generations.  In addition, the printed version of this magazine continues to include the summary listing of our national charity evaluations. 

If you know someone who would appreciate a copy of the printed version of this magazine, send their name and street address via email to charities@council.bbb.org and we would be happy to mail them a free copy of the Guide that will help them Give, But Give Wisely. 

Video of the Week 

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we are pleased to provide a video that features Stacy Pagos Haller, President and CEO, BrightFocus Foundation (a BBB Accredited Charity).  BrightFocus is an organization that seeks to advance research and public information in three areas: Alzheimer’s disease, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. 

Recent Reports 

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• Brother’s Brother Foundation
• Galapagos Conservancy
• Green Beret Foundation 

Finally, remember to let us know by going to https://www.give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.   

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

Unless told otherwise, donors are going to expect their contributions to be used for current purposes. This common sense principle is especially evident in disaster relief appeals when emergency assistance needs are in the headlines. Even if a charity is not addressing natural catastrophes, however, fundraising appeals usually engage the recipient by telling an emotional story about the significance of the issue the charity is addressing, often demonstrating how a specific individual was impacted. The objective is to motivate the recipient to send a donation today, but it also helps lead to expectations of contributions going for current activities.

Of course, good financial practice requires charities to also save and not to spend every single dollar as soon as they receive it. Otherwise, they won’t be able to continue their good works during times of the year when the flow of donations are typically less.  An unrestricted reserve fund that would be enough to pay for three months worth of expenses is considered a healthy financial goal for charities. This was evidenced in a report produced in 2008 by charity leaders including representatives from BBB WGA.

However, if a charity has an unusually large reserve fund that could pay for several years of the charity’s expenses, this is a material fact that donors want to know. Standard 10 in the BBB Charity Standards seeks to ensure that a charity uses its available resources to carry out its current program activities and not to build an unreasonably large reserve fund. To meet this standard a charity’s unrestricted net assets available for use should not be more than three times the size of either the past year’s expenses or the current year’s budget, whichever is higher. 

BBB WGA recognizes that charities that build such unusually large reserves generally have a rationale for saving such an amount.  In recognition of this and the fact that it may be inappropriate or impractical to spend more of these reserves in short period of time, a charity can still meet this standard if unrestricted reserves exceed the three year threshold as long as they include a recommended disclosure in their appeals and on their websites.  See the explanation for Standard 10 for additional details about this disclosure. 

On a separate note, as part of our Building Trust Video Series we are pleased to provide a video that features Mary Gilberti, J.D.,  Executive Director of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (a BBB Accredited Charity). Mary provides a brief overview of the NAMI activities and explains what they do to help strengthen donor trust.

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include: 

• Conservation International Foundation
• National Psoriasis Foundation
• Youth Development Fund 

Finally, remember to let us know by going to https://www.give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.  

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

Yesterday, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Foundation announced that the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB WGA) is one of five awardees of the 2018 Innovation Grants Award Program.  BBB WGA’s “Advancing Collaboration” project featured an article series created in partnership with the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) that sought to capture and encourage a new spirit of collaboration among charities and others engaged in philanthropy. With a strong recognition of the importance of trust in establishing collaborations, such partnerships can help organizations reach larger audiences while sharing the risk and help achieve more than an organization can do alone. The project also introduced a Collaboration Pledge which helps display a charity’s commitment to seeking out potential partners to carry out shared goals. Such partnerships are not only possible between charities but also with others entities engaged in social good. 

The ASAE Foundation indicates that during the past six years, it has awarded a total of 25 IGP grants and has received close to 300 applications from organizations of varied sizes, locations and missions. 

The Advancing Collaboration article series is accessible on Give.org and includes pieces written by executives from GuideStar, Center for Effective Philanthropy, Mission Partners, BoardSource, 92^nd Street Y, Association of Fundraising Professionals, American Red Cross, ALS Association and others. In addition, a summary of the article series appears in the latest issue of the Wise Giving Guide: BetterTogether: Charities and Collaboration. 

We are honored and greatly appreciate this recognition and support and will use the $10,000 grant to help further address collaboration issues in the current year. We thank all the authors who contributed to this effort as well as SSIR for helping to make this series available to social change leaders throughout the world. 

Video of the Week 

For this week’s Building Trust Video Series entry, we are pleased to provide a playlist featuring interviews with some of the authors of the Advancing Collaboration article series. The playlist includes interviews with Carrie Fox, Founder, Mission Partners, Pratichi Shah, Founder and CEO, Flourish Talent Management Solutions, Peter Panepento, Co-Founder, Turn Two Communications, Jake Porway, Founder and Executive Director, DataKind,  Gail McGovern, President and CEO, American Red Cross, Jacob Harold, President and CEO, GuideStar and Art Taylor, President and CEO, BBB Wise Giving Alliance.  The videos can be viewed individually on our YouTube page.

Recent Reports 

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• CARE USA
• Lewy Body Dementia Association
• National Marine Sanctuary Association 

Finally, remember to let us know by going to https://www.give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.   

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

On Monday I was honored to share our standards with business executives attending the Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals Annual Conference.  It was great working with executives charged with charitable investing for their corporations. The ones in my session seemed highly committed to supporting trustworthy charities. In assembling my presentation, I was reminded that the standard failed by the most charities is #16, which calls for the production of an annual report so I thought I would write about it. 

The key tenets of the BBB Charity Standards are transparency and accountability.  These two principles, when considered together, offer donors a more complete picture of a charity’s operations.  Previous #WiseGivingWednesday blogs have focused on the concept of accountability, which involves the inner workings of the board of directors and the charity staff.  Transparency, on the other hand, is the charity’s outward-facing image.  

Providing the public with descriptive and financial information is an important part of building trust.  Standard 16 of the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability calls for charities to produce a printed annual report that includes (a) the charity’s mission, (b) a summary of the year’s program accomplishments, (c) a roster of board members, and (d) financial information for the year including total income, total expenses broken out by programs, fundraising and administration, and ending net assets. 

While the IRS requires most of this information in its annual Form 990 filing, which is available to the public, BBB WGA’s annual report standard is designed to provide a more narrative and accessible document that will help the average donor without requiring them to navigate a tax form. 

Addressing this issue is not a difficult matter as BBB WGA does not require that the annual report to be a glossy, professionally printed document.  It could be a simple word-processed document or a web page with the information that can be printed out and mailed to donors upon request.  

Annual reports are by far the simplest way for charities to maintain a measure of transparency with the donating public.  In fact, an annual report may benefit a charity by acting as a valuable marketing opportunity to help tell their story and motivate support. 

Take a look to see if your favorite charities meet this important standard. For an A-Z directory of reports on nationally-soliciting charities, visit www.give.org/charity-reviews/national/.  To access both local and national charity reports, use the search engine on our homepage www.give.org. 

To keep you up to date, starting today, we are adding a feature to our #WiseGivingWednesday blog. Each post will list some of our most recently completed reports on national charities that seek to verify the trustworthiness of these organizations. Here is the first group:

• National Eating Disorders Association
• Optimist International Foundation
• Resources for Human Development
• Share Our Strength
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

Finally, let us know by going to https://www.give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one. 

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

As noted in this week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy, this holiday season is expected to result in significant gains for charities due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, large gifts from wealthy donors, a rising stock market, and a healthy response to the GivingTuesday campaign. While end-of-year donating is usually the most active time for contributors, the predictions are that charities will do better than anticipated. 

In view of this, we are pleased to share an infographic that provides donors with a holiday checklist of advice in making their giving choices: make sure you know what the charity does, watch out for name similarity, seek out advice from friends and family about which causes concern them most and verify if the charity meets the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability by visiting Give.org 

As part of our Building Trust Video series, we are pleased to provide a video that features Lt. Col. Ron Busroe, National Community Relations and Development Secretary of The Salvation Army’s National Headquarters in the United States (a BBB Accredited Charity).  The Salvation Army works through a network of 7,546 facilities in communities throughout the United States. The organization services include providing shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, daycare services for the elderly, assistance for the disabled, job training for displaced individuals, Bible classes for people in prison, relief for disaster victims, after-school tutoring, youth camps, and recreation activities for children.   

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include: 

• World Emergency Relief
• Wreaths Across America
• Youth for Christ USA 

Finally, remember to let us know by going to  https://www.give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.  

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance