Question on which group to support

[Viki63]

I get mailings from several pro-life groups, including Human Life International, Judie Brown’s American Life League, and the National Pro-Life Alliance.
While I think they are all great groups, I have no idea which, if any, are most effective or make the best use of donations,
While I’d like to support them all, funds don’t permit it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which group they’d recommend?

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[Casilda]

I like the diocese’s pro-life group, they have a Gabriel project, a Rachel project and there is even a Catholic run maternity home for moms.

 

[unstoppable_II]

I get mailings from several pro-life groups, including Human Life International, Judie Brown’s American Life League, and the National Pro-Life Alliance.
While I think they are all great groups, I have no idea which, if any, are most effective or make the best use of donations,
While I’d like to support them all, funds don’t permit it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which group they’d recommend?

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I started a regular monthly contribution to a pro-life group [not any on your list], and the first month had hardly gone by before it was apparent they were using my contribution to send me weekly requests for more, so be careful.

 

[midori]

Have you tried comparing them on Charity Navigator? I like to look at the breakdown and see how much of a donated dollar goes to fundraising and administration, versus program costs.

 

[unstoppable_II]

Have you tried comparing them on Charity Navigator? I like to look at the breakdown and see how much of a donated dollar goes to fundraising and administration, versus program costs.

I gave up on them. They obviously were using some professional fund-raising consultant.

 

[midori]

I gave up on them. They obviously were using some professional fund-raising consultant.

?

Charity Navigator is indeed a charity of its own-- but it compiles information about different charitable organizations.

For example, Human Life International — 83% goes to programming, 3.6% goes to administration costs, 13% goes to fundraising.

Or American Life League – 81% goes to programming, 12% goes to admin, 7% goes to fundraising.

Or the Pro-Life Action League — 74% goes to programs, 16% goes to administration, under 10% goes to fundraising.

Priests for Life – 78% programming, 14% admin, almost 8% fundraising.

Prolife Across America – 94.5% programming, 2% admin, 3.5% fundraising.

And so on.

 

[unstoppable_II]

?

Charity Navigator is indeed a charity of its own-- but it compiles information about different charitable organizations.

For example, Human Life International — 83% goes to programming, 3.6% goes to administration costs, 13% goes to fundraising.

Or American Life League – 81% goes to programming, 12% goes to admin, 7% goes to fundraising.

Or the Pro-Life Action League — 74% goes to programs, 16% goes to administration, under 10% goes to fundraising.

Priests for Life – 78% programming, 14% admin, almost 8% fundraising.

Prolife Across America – 94.5% programming, 2% admin, 3.5% fundraising.

And so on.

I wrote them a letter informing them that I intended to make regular monthly contributions and to remove my name from their mailing list and spend whatever they saved for fighting abortion instead. It didn’t seem to have any effect on the number of requests for more $.

Several years ago, there was another thread on this issue, and I kept the following comment:

Mailings from unknown orders asking for money

My husband’s company services third party mass mailers who solicit for charity so we know something about this business.

If you get the request by mail you can assume it comes from a third party for-profit company, not from the charity itself, until proven otherwise. Unless they are willing to provide information on their activities, who runs it, and transparent financial info, don’t bite. If you respond by mail some, if not all, [of] your donation goes to the mass mailer, and the charity just gets the addresses so they know who to keep hitting on for money. It is best not to respond at all or to get put on a do-not-call, do-not-mail list (which can be done online). This is especially true if they send trinkets or raffle tickets.

Research the charity on-line or call the office of the diocese in which they are located to get contact info. that is a lot of work and you are better off doing your giving only to organizations of which you have personal knowledge.

If you order something by catalog that includes a line for a donation to a charity, the charity gets no money, just your address and contact info. Don’t bite.

“puzzleannie” post #11
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=8546877#post8546877

 

[Viki63]

Thanks for the info. Looks like contributing to my parish/diocese may be the best bet.

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[unstoppable_II]

Thanks for the info. Looks like contributing to my parish/diocese may be the best bet.
.

I’m not so sure about that. When the ACORN scandal hit a few years back, the USCCB suspended their donations. They had given a million dollars up to that point. I don’t understand why a Catholic leadership organization would contribute to what appears to be a communist organization, so I suspended my donation to them and sent it to a different charity. One would think that when an amount of money like a million dollars is involved, they would have some investigators do some research. I have no proof, but suspect that the way ACORN was shuffling money around, the USCCB probably unknowingly paid for some abortions.

IMHO, the best organization to donate to is your local Society of St. Vincent de Paul. I’ve been a member for 10 years and observed their money handling up close.* In that period, there has been only one case I thought was questionable, but the amount wasn’t worth making an issue out of it.

• Disclaimer: I have never been in a position of authority to spend their money.

 

[Elizium23]

I’m not so sure about that.

I don’t think you are in a position to tell other faithful Catholics that we should not spend money on our parish and diocese, especially when your negative case study has nothing to do with a local parish or diocese. Please don’t engage in scaremongering. I donate chiefly to my own parish, because that is where I owe my stewardship. If parishioners don’t give, then who will? And where will we go to church?

There is a very real reason for donating to your own parish and diocese and that is use of resources. If you so much as step on the grounds of your church, you are guaranteed to be consuming valuable resources such as cleaning, maintenance, electricity, air conditioning. If you participate in liturgies, you are eating altar bread, listening to musicians, looking at vestments, candles, and sacred vessels. All of this money has to come from somewhere, and if people are too concerned that their money will be squandered then they won’t get to have any nice things at all.

 

[1ke]

I suggest rethinking the concern/focus of “overhead”. I work for a non-profit and I’m “overhead”. I think it’s a huge mistake to think a non-profit can or should spend all their dollars on programs and none on administration, growth, and fair wages.

I suggest Dan Pallotta’s talk, which really encapsulates the problem with that thinking:

ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong?language=en

 

[unstoppable_II]

I don’t think you are in a position to tell other faithful Catholics that we should not spend money on our parish and diocese, especially when your negative case study has nothing to do with a local parish or diocese. …

Why do you insist on reading something into my comment that clearly is not there? I gave a positive comment on St. Vincent de Paul, and you twisted it into something bad. Why?

 

[Mike_Dye]

Here in Kansas City Ks. our Arch-Bishop is really a strong pro-life advocate. We support crisis pregnancy centers as well as supply sonograms etc. Another thing to consider is to check out those running for office in your area and try to support the strong pro-life candidates. On the National level here my Senators and Representative are all pro life and I want to keep it that way.

 

[Elizium23]

Why do you insist on reading something into my comment that clearly is not there? I gave a positive comment on St. Vincent de Paul, and you twisted it into something bad. Why?

unstoppable II:

Viki63:

Thanks for the info. Looks like contributing to my parish/diocese may be the best bet.

I’m not so sure about that. When the ACORN scandal hit a few years back, the USCCB suspended their donations. They had given a million dollars up to that point. I don’t understand why a Catholic leadership organization would contribute to what appears to be a communist organization, so I suspended my donation to them and sent it to a different charity. One would think that when an amount of money like a million dollars is involved, they would have some investigators do some research. I have no proof, but suspect that the way ACORN was shuffling money around, the USCCB probably unknowingly paid for some abortions.

This was the conversation I was responding to, and to me it looks highly negative. It looks like you said “[contributing to our parish/diocese] may not be the best bet, because of the ACORN/USCCB scandal.” Care to elaborate what you meant by that part?

 

[Sheeniac]

I put money out to many of the groups you have listed. I really like the billboard group (prolifeacrossamerica). I suppose that some like to support only a few and make their donation count, but I like to spread it around…