How Much Money Goes to Charity When You Donate
How much money goes to charity when you donate? How do you know what charity to give your money to? The answer depends upon the organization you are considering giving to and also where you feel your donation can make the impact you’d like to make. One thing that remains true across the spectrum of charities supporting causes or communities you’re interested in is that it requires resources to do the work.
Administrative Costs and What That Means:
Oftentimes, you will see in non-profits’ financial breakdowns the categories for administrative expenses, programming, or services. It’s reasonable to expect that the important work that needs to be done sometimes can’t be done for free, however, many have been shocked to find out that the money they donate may not always go as far as they expect. To know how much charities use toward their programs and services, look to the ratios of administrative expenses outlined in their financial statements.
As seen in articles such as the one by lovetoknow (https://charity.lovetoknow.com/What_Percentage_of_Donations_Go_to_Charity) the cost of running a non-profit/charitable organization varies greatly based upon the scope of work they do, the staff, and other related costs such as fundraising.
It may seem strange at first why a charitable organization needs to spend money to raise money, but the reality is that even with the seemingly free resources that social media and the internet has made available for organizations to spread the word, it’s still a full-time job to make sure essential programs and services that charities provide can count on funding to continue the work.For example, according to this Charity Navigator summary, the American Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty of Animals (ASPCA) focuses on two key issues: animal homelessness and preventing animal cruelty. Charity Navigator notes they spend about 25 percent of their income on overhead like administrative costs and fundraising.
Verify: How do charities spend your donation dollars?
To learn more about a charity donation statistics, how much charities allocate to their core services and the percentage spent on expenses such as administration, visit these sources below:
Depending on the age and size of the charity, the available organization and format of the information may vary, but any 501(c)3 designated charitable organization should be able to provide concrete details, percentages, and transparent information about how dollars are spent and allocated by category. Whether non-profit or for-profit, both types of organizations must keep detailed financial records.
Sites such as give.org have been created by the Better Business Bureau to protect consumers from fraud and equip them with more information about charities and how funds are used, whether they are compliant, and their overall standing.
Where Does My Money Go When I Give to For The Unseen?
Here at For The Unseen, our goal is to ensure all donations go to serve the most good and serve the communities we can support. We are a lean organization that operates in large thanks to generous donors that allow us to direct 100% of all donations from the community directly to projects such as schools in Lebanon, Birds of Hope (Tuyoor Al Amal), which serves refugee children in Lebanon. This means that For The Unseen does not take a cut of the donation and distributes it directly to this school to continue its operations and services directly in the community.
Al Amal Schools are a group of three schools serving displaced Syrian children in Lebanon. They are located in and around the city of Tripoli, in the north of the country. Tuyoor Al Amal means "Birds of Hope". Two of the schools are located in the Tripoli suburb of Jabbal Albaddawi, and a third is located in Tripoli proper.
The schools were founded by Mustafa Al-Haj, a Syrian teacher, and a group of concerned Syrian refugees who wished to ensure that they could continue to provide education for the children of their community. The schools are not affiliated to any religious or political group.
The first school started teaching on 9th November, 2013, with the enrollment of 350 children from the Syrian refugee community. The school was soon recognized as a valuable part of the Syrian community. Its reputation in the community and the importance of the service that it provided has led to a rapid expansion. In 2014, the school relocated to allow it to increase pupil numbers to nearly one thousand. The year after that, a second school was founded to educate another thousand pupils. In November 2016, the third school opened with seven hundred pupils, focusing on providing morning classes.In October 2017 the third school expanded to add 300 students.
Together, the three schools now offer an education to over 3,000 displaced Syrian children aged four to eighteen. There are 126 members of staff, including teachers with both Syrian and Lebanese qualifications. Staff are recruited from the Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian communities.
If You Want to Give Charity or If You’re Ready to Give
Once you’ve learned more about a charity you want to support or if you are interested in supporting one of For The Unseen’s projects such as Birds of Hope (Tuyoor Al Amal), you may be curious how much impact can be made based on the amount donated.
With this context in mind, how far does a US dollar go to support an effort such as Tuyoor Al Amal?Based on our latest financial summaries $180 US dollars helps put one child through the school for one year. See the infographic below for a more comprehensive breakdown of how Birds of Hope leverages the funds it receives to continue providing essential education and services to children and families in Lebanon.
In Summary
We hope this blog post has helped answer questions you may have about charitable organizations related to how much of a donation goes to support charitable efforts in relation to the cost of administrative expenses and the like. If you have questions about For the Unseen related to donations, please contact us at info@fortheunseen.org.