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SmartLink.org Offers Five Tips for Charitable Giving This Holiday Season

December 8, 2008

Insights from Donors, Small Foundations Help People Give Strategically to Communities Hard Hit By Recession

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 8, 2008 — SmartLink.org (www.smartlink.org), the online resource of the nonprofit Community Giving Resource (CGR), today released tips on the ways donors can make a greater impact this holiday season, particularly in low-income communities severely affected by the recession. SmartLink.org helps individual donors and small foundations explore community issues and strategic giving approaches.

“In difficult economic times when needs are increasing, making good choices with your charitable giving is even more important,” said Elizabeth Myrick, project director, CGR/SmartLink.org.  “People are trying to figure out how their donations – no matter the size – can have the greatest impact.  Learning from the wise practices of donors and family foundations with a track record in community giving can help.”

SmartLink.org has highlighted five tips that can help individuals, families and giving circles navigate the holiday giving season:

1. Give locally to organizations with relationships and standing in the community.  No one knows the impact of the current economic crisis on a community better than the organizations that work in it.  Their services are in high demand and their budgets are most dependent on local, annual support.  While longer-term strategies and large-scale efforts are important, today’s financial crisis may require renewed commitment to tackling the immediate needs of your community.  According to Nancy Brain, trustee, Frances Hollis Brain Foundation, “Our grant was only for $5,000, but by having the conversation [with the local nonprofit] and looking at how to leverage funds, we were able to make a much bigger impact than we would have if we had just given a grant to the state headquarters.” 

2. Get to know the organization, personally, through a visit or volunteering.  Learn about the needs of the community and become informed about the nonprofit organization to determine whether it is reaching people in need, providing quality services, and operating effectively.  Try to determine whether the people or families receiving services from the organization would rate it highly. Also, look to see whether an organization includes recipients of its services on any advisory or board committees.  If you are donating at a higher level, you might consider a formal site visit or interview.  “Of all of the lessons I learned from the Stern Fund, I would say the most important was the value of conducting in-person interviews,” says David Stern, trustee of the Stern Family Foundation. 

3. Support efforts to partner, coordinate and share resources and information. Post-Hurricane Katrina, the founders of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, an umbrella organization that assists local governments with their financial needs and services, learned the value of coordinating local efforts and sharing resources.  Tony Pipa, a founder of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation said, “Most people involved in the response were too busy to look beyond their particular efforts to overcome fragmented communication systems.  Thankfully [in the post-Katrina days], many of us working on similar efforts were grouped in the same houses – the person facilitating the foundation planning process, for example, could update the governor's chief of staff on the mornings they happened to cross paths at the breakfast table.”  Given today’s unprecedented number of home foreclosures and other recession-related crises, a collaborative community-wide effort is very helpful in providing economies of scale and improved services for families and individuals in need.  To support these efforts, donors can identify a coordinated local initiative or an organization that facilitates collaboration. 

4. Limited funds?  Get focused.  This may be the year for you, your family or your giving circle to focus very intentionally on just one or two issues or even, one or two community groups.  By clarifying your personal aspirations for giving, you can better match a small gift with the organization most suited to make a difference on the issue closest to your heart or most critical to the well-being of your community.  By this time next year, you will have a sense of whether your hope was realized, what you—and the organizations—might have done differently, and whether to adjust your future giving. “I find the traditional means of running a foundation to be a little curious," said Tom Siebel, the founder of Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation who was named one of BusinessWeek's 'Top 50 Most Generous Philanthropists' in 2007 and 2008. "To have people poring over grant requests, studying them, vetting them, analyzing them, and then at the end of the year, making decisions... It seems to me that they could be having a larger impact if they chose certain areas and just tried to focus on them."

5. Give more than money.  Bringing together experts and volunteering specialized skills has helped the Lenny Zakim Fund supplement its relatively small grants.  In a similar manner, you might consider the non-financial gifts you could share with a nonprofit or community group.  Do you have special expertise in accounting, strategic planning, grounds keeping, etc, that would strengthen a neighborhood group? Do you know someone who can help provide the services or influence an organization needs?  Your willingness to put your own credibility behind an organization can be extremely powerful—in some cases, more powerful than a single monetary gift.  Be cautious, however. Before lending your name, skills or networks to an organization, be sure to ask the organization what kinds of help—beyond or in addition to money—would be most helpful.

About Community Giving Resource
Community Giving Resource (CGR) is a nonprofit project of the Neighborhood Funders Group.  CGR’s mission is to attract, engage, and sustain philanthropic investment in low-income communities. CGR services help donors explore and implement successful funding strategies that create change in communities. At the heart of the Community Giving Resource project is a free, independent and informative donor website, www.smartlink.org, with in-depth insight on community-based topics and successful giving strategies.  CGR has received funding from The Ford Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The California Endowment and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

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