Giving

I read the Wit and Wisdom for the Aged blog this morning about charitable giving. I couldn’t agree more that you should know how your charitable money is being spent. I attended a Mission meeting, at our church last night, and the whole meeting was about whom we can feasibly support with our limited recourses. We have identified 9 programs that have asked for or would like our help. The mission for our Mission Group is to figure out how to help all, in a meaningful way. Our small church helps support 2 Missions, one in Nigeria and the other in Guatemala, flood relief, tornado relief, food shelves, etc. and the requests just keep coming.
As we go through life, every year, we are asked to contribute to many causes: Red Cross, March of Dimes, Cancer Research, Salvation Army, United Way, Homeless Shelters, Food Shelves, Operation Santa Claus..….the list goes on. On top of this there are the youth program fund raisers for various sports, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Band….you get the picture. Someone is always asking for some sort of donation from your hard earned money. As Americans we are extremely generous and normally do not hesitate to help our youth, help the needy or to give someone assistance. But when we do give money we do have a right to know or ask how it is spent. Too often those in charge of “Charities” abuse our trust. One of the International Charities our church sends money to, spends close to 25% for administration costs. Looking at their organization chart it seems to me they are top heavy in salaried employees. Some say 25% is normal….I disagree…..10-12% is a little more typical. When we send our churches money to Nigeria we send it directly to the Mission, not to the ELCA regional office in Chicago. That way we know 100% of the money reaches the Mission. The American taxpayer is cynical of the way Congress spends their tax money. They have had enough! Let’s hope that anger does not spill over to charitable giving because there are certainly those who can use our help and would really struggle without it.