FMF Giving Report for 2008

As many of you know, I give away all the proceeds from Free Money Finance to charity each year. Everything from every sponsor, every affiliate, every sale, every everything. Every single penny goes to charity. We're now closing in on $200,000 donated since this blog started (we'll pass $200k sometime in 2009). It's pretty cool that by simply writing (me) and reading (you) a personal finance blog that we all can help so many people from around the world.

As I do each year, I give a list of many of the organizations FMF has supported the previous year. Here's the list for 2008 in alphabetical order:

• American Cancer Society
• Crown Financial Ministries
• House of Mercy
• James Fund
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• Make-a-Wish Foundation
• Meijer Gardens
• Russian Children's Welfare Society
• Samaritan's Purse
• Shaohannah's Hope
• Union Gospel Mission

I just want to say thank you to all the sponsors of Free Money Finance who have made this possible. It's an amazing list and I'm honored to help these charities. But most of all, a huge THANK YOU goes to you, the readers of FMF. You're the ones that make this site what it is and because you come back day after day, we're all able to help those less fortunate around the world. Thanks!

And here's to helping even more people in 2009!

Comments

[Marian]

Thank you for your nice blog.

[Mark B.]

Thanks FMF,

I have enjoyed reading your blog for over 2 years now. Thanks for the hard work, good discussions, and most of all, thanks for helping out so many good causes.

[Duane Gran]

This is marvelous and I'm thankful for the wonderful service that you have facilitated. Many lives are better for it.

[Super Saver]

FMF,

Congratulations on making a difference for those organizations.

[JimL]

FMF,

Thanks for supporting these. In particular, thanks for the support to Shaohannah's hope as I am an adoptive father and that one is particularly near and dear to my heart.

(James 1:27)

[Rajesh]

I am really impressed with your commitment and philanthropic service and sincerely thank you for supporting these organizations. If you need any help/volunteer service, please do not hesitate to email me and I am willing to contribute in whatever capacity to help FMF to achieve goal of 200K.

[Kevin M]

That's really a fantastic number. Keep up the good work.

[Todd @ Prosperity Junky]

I know with all of the hard work that you put into this blog you deserve to make some money from it. It would also be good for your personal finances. :-) However, it is truly admirable that you choose to give it all away. Cheers and Congrats!

[Sarah]

Wow. That's excellent work, FMF.

[Amy]

FMF, your charitable giving is very commendable, and you've been one of the financial blogs that have influenced me to budget my charitable giving (thus, increasing it). Thank you for that!

Out of curiosity, do you consider the efficiency or rating of charities when deciding who to give to? I've used Charity Navigator to make sure that the charities I give to use their money wisely. FYI, here are the rankings (out of 4 stars) of the charities you listed, as well as the percentage of funds that are spent on programs.

American Cancer Society - 2 stars, 68%
Crown Financial Ministries - 3 stars, 73%
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society - 3 stars, 72%
Make-a-Wish Foundation - 3 stars, 74%
Meijer Gardens - 3 stars, 87%
Samaritan's Purse - 4 stars, 90%

[FMF]

Amy --

The giving I do from the blog is influenced by several factors including:

*A charity's effectiveness (as you quote)

*A charity's personal impact on my life/how much I like it and like what it does

*A charity's impact on others' lives (some charities I gave to because my readers "won" the contributions in contests)

[thomas]

Wow, really impressive achievement!

[Claire at Choyster Cash]

Please, please be careful of site like Charity Navigator as a way to make your decision about the best practices of any non profit or charity organzation. I have started two non-profits, studied accounting, and have an MBA, and know that the premise of sites like Charity Navigator is to dole out ratings based primarily on the lowest operating costs possible.

This only encourages *really* creative accounting by non profit organizations, and ends up favoring large organizations who can pay for great accountants to sweep operating costs under the rug.

For instance - you will often see that a site like Charity Navigator rates the top ten charities as having less than 1% in OPERATING COSTS. This, ostensibly, makes donors feel happy because it means that your donor money is not going to OPERATING COSTS.

However, what are OPERATING COSTS for a non profit organization?

One would think that salaries, office equipment, marketing, PR, travel expenses, and any other number of other categories would be included in OPERATING COSTS, but if the reality is that a charity´s OPERATING COSTS make up 1% of their budget then this is not possible at all. If any charity had to stick to a 1% operating cost rating guideline (as endorsed by Charity Navigator) they would have to be raking in a million dollars a year just to have one single employee in a small office using one laptop!

Be careful guys - make sure to really look into a charity yourself.

The average, successful non-profit does need to spend money on operating costs to survive and thrive. Employees, office space, marketing, are all essential. However, smaller non-profits often don´t have the retainer to pay for the accounting efforts needed to make their operating costs not appear large.

[whatever you choose to call me sir]

hadn't seen this post fmf. didn't realize the difference you were making in dollars. WELL DONE!!! jeff

[Financial Samurai]

Wow, I'm so proud of you FMF!!!!!!!! This is so awesome! You are very inspirational to me. Best. I gotta at least ad you to my blogroll! :)

I don't have any ads on FS, b/c I don't want to be distracted by money. However, to donate to charity would be a great motivating factor for me, if there are days I don't want to write.