Making an Impact With a Small Donation

When I talk to people about making an impact with their donations, many people think that it requires a large donation. To make an impact today, you do not need to spend a lot of money. You may choose to make an impact with a gift as low as $25. Granted there are various stages of making meaningful impacts, but let me suggest two steps you can do with your smaller donation that will make you feel comfortable that what you are giving is making an impact.

Step one: Ask questions about how much money is going directly to help clients and not to administrative or fundraising costs. With that simple bit of research, you can give to the charity that gives the most to their recipients. With more money going to the recipients, more people may benefit.

Step Two: Ask the charity for their outcomes. Look at their mission and look for a purpose. Then ask how successful the charity is at meeting that purpose. How many of their clients are succeeding? With that additional research, you are checking on the quality of the programming at your chosen charity, not just the efficiency.

If you find a charity that meets the above requirements, then you are making a significant difference. Perhaps your donation will not change the lives of many people, but it will make the charity more accountable for providing their results to you and to other like-minded donors. The more donors that ask questions and make objective decisions, the greater the potential for significant impact.

Something to think about...

Labels: donor impact meaningful donations, small donations

posted by Brenda Northey @ 7:55 AM