Charity Watchdogs.
Last week’s spirited discussions about religious nonprofits and the subsequent scavenger hunt made me think about Charity Watchdogs. I had visited the sites handed out with the scavenger hunt assignment. Charity Navigator and Guidestar do have areas for rating a charity. But they seem more interested in taking my money rather that reporting. The metrics are somewhat limited and don’t, I believe, tell the whole story. This week’s article on The Auburn Family Residence Shelter brought up an idea. Why aren’t social services also rated by the people who use them? Wouldn’t that be a more accurate reflection of a social service’s work? And if there isn’t one, how do we really know that the ratings system on Charity Navigator and Guidestar are accurate evaluations?
So I did a little research and looked into this site: AIP or the American Institute of Philanthropy. We looked at this site briefly in class. What was not so evident at the time, was an articles section that talks about various newsworthy items about different subject areas on various charities. In the article area are various stories that have been reported in papers, IRS changes, and results from court rulings that are grouped by subject area. Interesting reading, there is focus on accountability and the criteria for rating a charity is more in depth. I highly recommend taking a spin through their site. And I will include research from them in my final paper.
Social Services
Of all the nonprofits, these are my favorites. They seem the most cause-driven and are directly related to improving the quality of life. In the Saint Vincent dePaul article, I found it interesting how the once needy-driven service has now expanded itself to do some pretty amazing things: recycling mattresses, repairing and reselling cars, and importing antiques from Scotland, where otherwise by law the furniture had to be destroyed. The profits from these ventures help finance all the lower income housing units that are going up around Eugene. Once again, using their profits to provide a MUCH needed service here in Eugene/Springfield; affordable housing. Because of the excess enrollment at the University of Oregon and Lane Community College, the huge influx of students has created a housing crisis in the rental market. Rental housing in the last 15 years in Eugene has gone up 75%, leaving many people unable to pay for housing. This housing provides them a way to get back on their feet and create a stable budget, starting from the ground up.
Cause-related Marketing
In the book, I was shocked at the cause-related marketing. To think, all those times I’ve heard, “Buy such-and-such at so-and-so’s” or “buy with your Visa”…during this particular time, and the proceeds go to charity. I never realized that this could mean that when I buy something with my Visa or shop at so-and-so’s, thinking that I’m helping this charity, the truth is, they could just be donating the same percent of money they always do each year to limit tax liability. They might not actually make a “special effort” to give more than they regularly do. What happens more often than not is for special promotion consideration, they decide to give the lion’s share of their regular donations that are usually more spread around, to one charity. In return, they get to use that charity to help promote sales. It may not result in any more money than they normally give without the promotion. But they use it to give the consumer that “good feeling” when they buy. Personally, I feel a little leary and it seems a little slick. And from now on, I’m always giving money straight to the charity. Not from Visa or So-and-So’s business first, THEN to charity. Lesson learned.
Additional Reading:
http://www.charitywatch.org/criteria.html
Image credits
http://www.charitywatch.org/images/RoboRatingsSayNo.jpg
http://www.ourladyqueenofpeacefoundation.com/content/pr_st_vincent.asp
http://josefkatz.com/2008/11/27/cause-related-marketing-giving-back/
looks great, but not sure who this is–can you put your first name and last initial on it?
Okay–now I see it’s Sydney. Not sure why your name didn’t show up before I replied..
This is not Sydny. It’s Marshelle.
Wait… I think this is Marshelle’s blog, Sydney’s is the one preceding this one.
But as for my response, I thought it was a great observation about cause-related marketing. I agree that I would rather give money straight to the who is supplying the service instead of going through one or two middle men. It is interesting how enticing those adds are thought and how many people I know who would buy something just for that reason. Or perhaps it just gives them more of an incentive to buy it so they can justify that it is for less selfish reasons?
Nice blog Marshelle! I really enjoyed the pictures you added. I liked how you took the time to do some research on the Charity Navigator and Guidestar, and AIP or the American Institute of Philanthropy. I think many sites like Guidestar are in some way trying to get a little bit of money out of us. I believe most sites and businesses will try and make a profit from their service in any way they can. I don’t think we can ever fully rely on the accuracy of these rating systems either. We can only try to weed out what we believe is “statistical crap”. Sometimes it is hard to do this though when we aren’t provided enough information on how the research was conducted or how the rating system really works. I think the AIP or the American Institute of Philanthropy is a great tool that offers insight to the criteria for rating a charity more in depth. Social services are probably my favorite of the nonprofits as well. I agree that they seem the most cause-driven and have the dedication in trying to improve the lives of millions, offering a variety of services to so many different people.
Again, I don’t know why my comment isn’t showing my name, but this is from Anna.
Marshelle,
Your blog brought up some very interesting ideas. We’ve read and discussed about ways of rating different nonprofits within our country. I agree with your point that these nonprofits should be rated by those receiving the services. I believe that these would be the most important ratings of all through providing a deeper insight into a nonprofit and if it is actually doing what it is intended to do. The article about the Auburn Family Shelter is an excellent example of why these ratings are so vital.
Marshelle,
As usual your blog was interesting and I appreciate that you bring up different ideas than just the reading. I thought your idea about having people who use nonprofits rate them instead of all the rating systems that are currently in place was interesting but I don’t think it would be a very accurate way of measuring how well the nonprofit is doing. It seems to objective to me and I don’t know if the information provided would be similar enough for me to be able to compare two charities to one another. Also at the end of your post you talked about cause related marketing and I agree in a way. I don’t think I should go out of my way to buy products that I don’t need just because the company says that they will do some sort of charitable good deed but if I just happen to need something that is using cause related marketing I don’t think it is bad. Money goes towards a good cause, the cause is promoted, and awareness is raised for the problem they are trying be help.
Marshelle,
I agree that St Vincent de Paul is an amazing organization with a lot of diverse ways of generating an income that gets fed back into the community. Your information about the housing problems in Eugene were really interesting. While we, as students, are always worrying about finding housing and with more and more students attending every year, we rarely think about the lifelong citizens looking for low-income housing; I’m glad you put that into perspective.
I LOVE this group’s comments. Rebecca, about the rating by recipients, that would be my concern too. I envision it being more like the type of ratings you see for products on websites. Often, you can tell if someone is being objective or just pissy.