Bookmark This Page

Delicious Google Bookmarks Stumbleupon Digg BlinkList Ma.gnolia Reddit Yahoo My Web

Five Important Questions to Ask a Charity Before Donating

Do you know what questions to ask a charity before you even begin to consider donating your money to them? If not then it is time to get informed. Read on for five important questions to ask a charity before donating.

Question Number One

Is your charity able to easily define whom it is and what it is all about, including what it was designed to do?

If a charitable organization is not clear about its mission statement and about what its goals are then how will it be able to go about operating in such a manner to help people? It is not easy to make services and programs happen if an organization is not sure what it is striving to do. A charity that can simply and easily define and describe itself is more likely to be committed to its cause.

Question Number Two

Is your charitable organization able to easily define both its short-term goals as well as its long-term goals?

If a charity cannot accurate pinpoint its short-term and long-term goals then this does not bode well for its future success. Do not donate your money to a charity that cannot give you the long and short on what it is attempting to accomplish. A reputable charity will look forward to the opportunity to discuss the good work it is doing to help people in need of its programs and services.

Question Number Three

Can the charity discuss the progress it is making at the present time and also the progress it has made in the past and seeks to make in the future?

Very similar to question number two, identifying a problem and explaining the mission statement is not enough. Instead a charity must be able to show some concrete examples of the fact that it started at point A and made it to point B by taking such ands such an action. Good intentions are one thing but progress that can be easily identified is even better. This is evidence that the charity is doing what it intended to do for the very beginning.

Question Number Four

Do the programs put on by the charity make sense to the people who choose to donate money to the cause?

Believing in the cause of the charity is a good starting off point and seeing that progress is being made is essential but do you personally see that the services and programs are productive and make sense? Are they rational and logical? Does the charity pursue its goals in a way that truly gets to the heart of the problem and helps or do they seem to go wrong in their attempts to do right? Only donate money to charities that carry the same belief or moral system as yourself. Donate to those that do not just support the ends of what you believe in but the means as well. Only donate to what you believe in heart and soul, as you do not want to have to wrestle with your conscience.

Question Number Five

Is the charitable organization trustworthy?

What types of news do you hear about the charity in question? Have they ever been implicated in any type of scandal? Have they ever been investigated for any alleged wrongdoing? Have they ever been taken to court? Do not donate your money to any charity until you can be sure that the charity is worth your trust. Take the time to research the organization well because you do not want the money you are donating that is supposed to be helping children, animals or cancer victims to end up buying a more expensive home for a greedy CEO.