Donating to our favorite charities can be an emotional expereince- even more emotional when you feel like you’re not seeing results from all of your donations. We broke down the statistics charity by charity to show you how they spend their money and what you should be expecting from them. We used CharityWatch’s grading system to help you understand the statistics!
The American Cancer Society
CharityWatch Grade: B+
The American Cancer Society focuses on helping people through the four ideas of “staying well, getting well, finding cures, and fighting back.” It hurts when someone we know has cancer, so we can show we care through donations. ACS gets 95 percent of their money from individual donations and only 5 percent from investments or grants. CharityWatch gave them a B+.
Animal Welfare Institute
CharityWatch Grade: A+Â
The goal of the Animal Welfare Institute is to make sure that no animal is suffering, especially at the hands of humankind! We all love cute and furry (and sometimes squirmy and scaly) animals, so it’s great news to us that the AWI earned a grade of an A+ from CharityWatch.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
CharityWatch Grade: A-
You know those colorful sneakers that people ask you to pay them a dollar and sign? Well, those dollars go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. JDRF has an ultimate goal of easing the pain of Type 1 Diabetes until it can be cured, and we think they are well on their way to reaching that goal! However, JDRF spends a whopping 21 percent of their funding on management. Collectively, the charity earned an A- from CharityWatch.Â
National Alliance to End HomelessnessÂ
CharityWatch Grade: A+Â
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has a pretty apparent goal—to end homelessness! But how do they do it and, more importantly, are they effective? NAEH earned a grade of A+ from CharityWatch! They spend less than 5 percent on overhead costs like management and lobbying. We’re jealous—we wish we earned high grades and spent less than 5 percent of our money.Â
Doctors Without Borders
CharityWatch Grade: A
Doctors Without Borders takes their patient care worldwide, helping people combat emergency medical situations, fight off epidemics, and stay protected during disasters. They rightfully earned a grade of an A from CharityWatch because they spend less than 1 percent of their funds on management and general costs.
As college students, we don’t really have money to waste. We want to make sure that we put our dollar to good use. We also hope the junk food we buy will fill our bellies, that the nail polish we pick out doesn’t chip, and that the donations we give really do make a difference. Check out your own favorite charities and their stats at CharityWatch.org.Â
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