How Much of Your Money Goes to Running Your Charity of Choice?

Most of the 5,300 largest charities in the United States spend their money wisely and use the donations they receive to carry out valuable missions; however, there are still many charities that operate inefficiently and irresponsibly, and don’t properly allocate their donations.  When people donate directly to a major charity the money is almost always used for good purposes but sometimes problems arise when donations are made through professional fundraisers.

Charities are starting to rely heavily on raising money through professional fundraisers.  Within these fundraisers anywhere between 20 to 90 percent of every dollar that is donated is kept to pay the professional fundraisers and pay the charity workers.  Recently many state attorney generals began conducting studies to keep track of how much of the money raised through these fundraisers is actually going to the charity.

The attorney general of Massachusetts was part of a ten state probe to find out how much of the actual money raised through these professional fundraisers actually went to the charity itself.  During one year time in Massachusetts there was $285 million raised through professional fundraisers but only $101 million actually ended up with the charity.  This is only 35 percent of donations actually reaching the charity.  Discussing giving with a Massachusetts estate planning lawyer is a good way to figure out exactly where your money is going and what it’s being used for.