Giving (any day)

Today is Giving Tuesday, the first Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving.

It actually began in 2011 as Cyber Giving Monday:

… a movement to create an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season … urging donors to take a different approach to filling up an online virtual cart with goods … The push was moved to Tuesday the following year as to not compete with Cyber Monday.

Wikipedia

I don’t know about you, but I’ve struggled over the years when choosing the charities I support because it’s hard to know how much of what I donate is going to the actual causes I’m supporting (as opposed to administrative or fundraising costs).

Today I came across a very helpful website called Charity Intelligence Canada that assesses charities based on:

• results reporting
• financial transparency
• need for funding
• cents per dollar going to the cause, and
• impact/SROI (Social Return On Investment)

The site offers a yearly “Top 100 Charities” list—see 2019 here—which includes a link to a Google sheet so you can sort and filter the results according to the metrics that matter to you.

Check it out, even if you’re not reading this on Dec. 2/19 … after all, giving doesn’t have an expiry date. 🙂