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Sue Chu
Capstone 7
Greene
3 November, 2016
Individuals Giving to Charities
Private donations are the foundation for humanitarian and developmental aid. In the
United States about $300 billions, 2% of the total GDP, goes to charitable causes per year and
individual giving came to 75% of the total philanthropy in 2009 (Brown). However, this large
sum is not used to its full potential and the issue arises from uninformed donors giving blind aid.
To revert this trend and make donations more effective, individual donors should first, find a
focused passion for donating, second, carefully evaluate the charities they are donating to, and
finally, stay committed to a cause .
Individual donors are diverse in their abilities and resources which means there are many
different ways to make a donation. For donors who are leaders or business owners in their
community, the most productive use of their talent and assets is starting an organization using
business and management techniques. These people can easily launch a local initiative or use
their own businesses to start donating organizations. The enterprise should set goals, invest both
to make a profit and help society, create and sustain efficient, effective institutions, and then
measure and evaluate the results (Gitelson). The success of Google for technological research
and Starbucks against hunger furthers shows how community leaders can propel action through
more than just simply giving money away. Another method of donation is through volunteering
and this is the easiest way to give for everyone (Gitelson). Volunteering does not require

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monetary donations and it is extremely flexible, allowing people to come and go based on their
time schedules. Approximately of American population volunteer annually through
volunteer organizations such as Hands On, Operation HOPE, and Red Cross (Gitelson).
Volunteering is a more sympathetic donation because it can give physical help, like affections
and technical support, rather than simply cash. Today, a prevalent way of giving is through social
media networking. Many people may think that a post or a like have will have limited impact
for a cause. On the contrary, social networking is extremely beneficial for charitable causes by
providing platforms for people to join together for a cause, project, or campaign (Gitelson).
Additionally, a 2015 Charitable Giving report by Blackbaud revealed a 9.2% increase in online
giving within the span of a year and online giving is about 7.1% of all fundraising (Gitelson). On
#GivingTuesday, the international online giving day, donations increased 52% from the year
2014 to 2015 (Gitelson).
( based on the book give smart) Before donating through one of the channels introduced
in the previous paragraph, individual donors should always find something they are passionate to
donate to. Such passions can be divided into five Ps and they are Philosophy, People, Problem,
Pathway, and Place (Thomas). Philosophy refers to a donor devoted to a belief can donate to
religious philanthropy suches as churches and temples. People refers to a donor's concern for
helping a category of people, such as impoverished children. A Pathway is when a donor
supports a certain way of life for the recipients and they donate to umbrella organizations that are
the overarching societal solution communities. Problems are the challenges that people may face
in life and it can be anything from finding water to an incurable disease. A donor can also make
donations to a specific Place or a geographical location on earth. Donations for this passion

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mostly go towards international aid which works towards self reliance and sustainable
development for developing countries (Thomas). Finding a purpose to donate to will give the
donor a goal to accomplish. Donors must stay committed to their cause in order to see results.
Having passion allows a donor to become a leader to a cause and follow through with their
decision to make change through a donation.
( Following through with a cause and giving )Finally, donors must always evaluate the
credibility and impact of a charitable organization before they contribute to its cause. To evaluate
up to 1.6 million existing charities, there are Watchdog groups out there to compare the impact
and results of each organizations for a cause (Gitelson). Transparency is a way to evaluate the
trustworthiness of the organization to see if the budgets are released and used to what cause
(Kristoff). Tax return status can also verify the credibility of an organization's claims of being a
nonprofit, indicated by the 501(c)(3) status to specific IRS code that guides nonprofit tax law
exemption from taxes (Kristoff). With deductible taxes, it means that more of the donors money
is actually going towards helping those in need. The legal approval and credibility is of vital
importance in determining the impact of the organizations. Goals and objectives change over
time and this is true for even the best organizations. Through the Three Cups of Tea controversy,
the CAIs corruption by Greg Mortenson, donors should learn to not blindly trust that any charity
is set up for the purpose that it claims and must also periodically review the organizations as
priorities do change (Krakauer)
Individual donors should not underestimate their own potentials for impact. The easiest
and quickest ways of donating may not be the right way to donate. Lazy donors can
unintentionally create lazy or fraudulent organizations that can lead to dishonest, irresponsible

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use of funds. Donors should be more strategic and educated on a cause before they donate to
organizations in order to avoid scams and maximize the impact of their donations.

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Works Cited
Brown, M. J. (2006). Building Powerful Community Organizations. Arlington, MA: Long Haul.
Krakauer, J. (2011). Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His
Way. Byliner Inc.
Kristof, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2015). A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating
Opportunity. Vintage Books.
Gitelson, S. A. (2012). Giving Is Not Just For The Very Rich. North Charleston, SC:
CreateSpace.
Tierney, T. J., & Fleishman, J. L. (2011). Give smart: Philanthropy that gets results.
PublicAffairs.