Charities - Where Is Your Money Really Going?

Praying For Discernment in Giving? A Helpful Charity Information Resource! 

How can Christians be wise stewards of their blessings in their gifts and tithing? There are so many charities! Do you ever wonder how much of your donation actually reaches the people in need? Yesterday I saw a poster showing how some popular charities have very little money reaching the intended recipients, while the heads of those charities receive astronomical salaries! 

Did you know there is a website that shows records of how your donations are used by charities?
Here are some useful links and surprising charity information I discovered.

How Do Charities Use Donations?

Charity Watch - American Institute of Philanthropy

Charity Watch, founded over 20 years ago by the American Institute of Philanthropy does independent research on how donations are used by charities based in the USA, in addition they have some information about some charities founded by Americans that operate in Canada or globally. One surprise? The SPCA - a charity whose acronym mimics the ASPCA - owes huge sums of money to it's CEO's two promotion companies. Only 8% of it's funds reach animals in need. This same person was recently removed as head of the CSPCA which also owes huge sums to his promotion companies.

Other shocking statistics? The amount of compensation received by heads of the many charities are astronomical:

• Boy Scouts of America - C. Wayne Brock Chief Scout - over $1 million dollars!
• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews - Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein - over $1 million dollars!
• Cystic Fibrosis Foundation - CEO Robert J. Beall -over $1million dollars!
• Easter Seals[National Office] - James E. Williams Jr. Past President/CEO - $837, 120!
• World Wildlife Fund - Carter Roberts CEO - $833, 595!

While Charity Watch points out that large compensation packages, do not necessarily mean a charity is inefficient, nor does a low salary mean a charity is efficient, it certainly is shocking to see salaries and compensations packages that are so large. 

I was surprised to see that Charity Watch gave good ratings to some charities with large compensation packages, and charities that have been criticized by other sites online.

References:

Charity Watch - American Institute of Philanthropy

Money Sense - Top 100 Canadian Charities

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May God Bless you and give you discernment, 
Suzanne