Around 48,000 charities in Australia receive around $11.8 billion AUD every year according to the latest report. It’s ordinary people like you giving to worthy causes year on year that enables these charities to change the world for the better.
So it’s understandable that you want to make sure that your hard-earned charity donation ends up in the right hands. But choosing a charity can be difficult. There are so many charities out there and how can you tell which one is the best charity to support?
Don’t worry, this simple guide will make choosing and supporting a charity simple!
Choose a Cause That Is Important to You
People feel compelled to give more and often when they support a charity that they have an emotional connection to. So when choosing a charity, the first thing you should do is make a list of all the causes close to your heart.
Here are some examples of causes:
- Education
- Health
- Homelessness
- Clean water
- Equality
- Arts and culture
- War and veterans
- Foreign aid and NGOs
- Environmental
Once you understand which causes are important to you, narrow it down further. For example, if environmental causes are important, do you care more about animals, plastic in the ocean, or something else? Unless you’re Bill Gates, you likely can’t donate money everywhere so pick one or two specific causes.
Research Legitimate Charities
Next, you need to research the types of charities that help these causes. Doing a Google search e.g. “ocean charities” or “elephant charities” is a good start. Choose one based in your home country to avoid losing money in currency exchanges.
You can also find these charities that you might want to support on CharityWatch.org and CharityNavigator.com. These resources will not only list charities you can support but score them on certain criteria too.
Find Out How You Can Donate
How do you prefer to donate to charities? Do you prefer to donate a small amount every month or do you prefer to give sporadic lump donations? Some charities might not have the function for you to set up an automatic monthly donation, so that will help you rule out some charities.
Learn How the Charity Uses Donations
Now you should have a handful of charities on your shortlist. Before you pick one or two, you need to research their philanthropic works. Find out the exact percentage of donations that they put towards their cause.
You don’t want to support charities that spend lots of charitable donations on overheads like offices and marketing.
Now You Will Find Choosing a Charity Much Easier
Choosing a charity might seem difficult because there are so many to pick from. But if you use this framework to narrow down what is important to you, you will choose the best charity out there to support.
They say that charity begins at home and you need to get your finances in order before you can give to others. If you need money-saving tips, browse our website for lots of informative articles that will help!
