The Coming Charity Crisis

How the struggling economy is hurting donations.

By Daniel Gross | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jun 12, 2008 | Updated: 1:42  p.m. ET Jun 12, 2008

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  • Posted By: towriteloveonherarms49 @ 09/26/2008 9:23:48 AM

    Subject: The (Your Charity or School Here) Needs Your Help!
    Nonprofits and schools are having trouble meeting their fundraising goals this year!
    To help make up the difference, more than 700 of your favorite internet retailers and travel sites including Amazon, eBay, Target, Apple, Expedia and more have joined forces with GoodShop.com to donate part of every purchase to your favorite charity or school (more than 63,000 nonprofits are now on-board)!
    It takes just a few seconds to go to www.goodshop.com, select your charity, and then click through to your favorite store and shop as usual.
    Also, Yahoo has teamed up with GoodShop's sister-site, GoodSearch.com, to donate a penny to your cause every time you search the web. This is totally free as the money comes from advertisers.
    To give you a sense of how the money can add up, the ASPCA has already earned more than $17,000!
    Please tell 10 friends about GoodShop and GoodSearch today. They???ve been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Oprah Magazine and more. Charities need our help to spread the word now more than ever!

  • Posted By: casey13 @ 06/13/2008 11:42:39 AM

    Hahaha..and it will only get worse. Big tax hike coming that will further reduce donations to charities from the rest of us. Yes, by all means let's "soak the rich" for the "middle class" a lose definition dependent on political expediency. In the 70s, a frequent refrain was, "why should I give to charities, I already pay to much in taxes." Well, guess what Baby - the way the wind is blowing, hold on to your pocket book. Soon only the mega wealthy will be giving to charities as those not defined as "middle class," but far from wealthy, will get socked. In my little spec of the world, many of us are already pulling back our giving in anticipation of the coming tax bonanza....and we don't own second houses and yachts. Guess what, family comes first - Gov't digs deeper in my pocket, that means less disposable income, less for charities - less for everybody. When will we get it though our heads that taxes dampen economic growth, incomes and, ultimately, charitable giving? But, I might as well spit in the wind....

    • Posted By: techie22 @ 06/14/2008 1:50:01 PM

      Sounds like you blame democrats for having taxes too high. They aren't the ones who rammed through a tax benefit for the wealthy during a time of war a multi trillion dollar war. How unpatriotic. And they're not the ones who said "go shopping" to help our troops. People started putting everything on plastic counting on home equity loans to bail them out. Woops, home equities have plummeted and those that "went shopping" are giong to be paying loan shark rates even though the banks got the money for less than 2%. But those who believe as you do are not open to facts so therefore need to be written off and smart decisions need to be made in your absence.

  • Posted By: techie22 @ 06/14/2008 1:42:11 PM

    Interesting how the "Christians" have raped our country and sucked the wealth into a few at the top who profit from war & oil (or for these guys, both). And how's that trickle down economics going? A bit constipated are we? Fat cats and whales don't give a damn about anyone but themselves and until they are no longer making the laws, the rest of us will have to grin and bare it. If you hear the term "let 'em eat hotdogs", watch out !

  • Posted By: orange pumpkin @ 06/12/2008 11:10:06 PM

    It is no wonder that charitable donations of average Americans have fallen off, and it has scant relationship to the current state of the economy. New rules promugated by the IRS, instigated by such charities as the Salvataion Army, now require tangible detailed receipts for even cash that is put in the Sunday church collection plates, to say nothing of cash tossed into the ubiquitous red kettles of the Salvation Army. Those simple donations are no longer qualified as deductable donations on the IRS 1040 forms unless they are accompanied by a written receipt from the charity. Try asking for a receipt for $5 when you cram it into a kettle. Further, donations of used clothes must be detailed in writing and, in the case of amounts exceeding $5,000 (yes, there used to be a lot of that magnitude), must be appraised in writing by a certified personal property appraiser. If the Salvation Army, and their cohorts, are stewing in their own juices in their own red ketteles, they have no one to blame except themselves and their greed in facilitating the requirement of professional appraisals in exchange for making it easier for the extremely wealthy to make huge CASH donations from hugh 401K or IRA accounts. All they want is the BIG money, and don't bother them with the small stuff. They are getting what they richly deserve. Unfortunately, the average small guy, who now needs a receipt for the cash he puts in the church collection plate, or drops into the red kettles, won't boher contibuting his small pittance. The result will be that hundreds of millions of dollars of small cash and perfectly useable clothing and household furnishing will end up it the landfills. The big charities have been hoisted by their own petard and the needy will suffer. Pathetic!

    • Posted By: javaprincess @ 06/13/2008 10:56:47 AM

      Why do people fret over getting a tax receipt for $5 or a load of old clothes they don't want anyways? I think the idea of having to always get something in return for your donation is "pathetic". If you have to rethink putting $5 in the kettle or collection plate because you are unable to get a tax receipt, I think you should rethink why you are giving in the first place.

      • Posted By: orange pumpkin @ 06/13/2008 7:33:03 PM

        You just don't get it. The big bulk of charitable donations in the form of clothing comes from elderly people who are either downsizing or going into a nursing home and need to dispoae of a life time excess of not only clothes but fine, expensive, household furnishings, that incude furniture, decorative arts, glass porcelain, kitchen ware, tools, utilitarian household accesories, and more kinds of useful goods than you can possibly imagine. In Chicago alone, an important charity, the Chicago Christan Industrial League, survived for years selling donated contributions through its four story thrift shop. With the money derrived from the sale of donated good, this charity was able to provide food, shelter, and occupation training for hundreds of men who were on the bottom rung of their existence. The donors of the goods received a tax credit that helped defray the cost of having someone do the physical labor of selecting, packing, recording, valuing, certifying according to IRS regulations, and transporting the donated goods to the charity's warehouse. If you have never helped in this kind of work, then you have absolutely no idea of how complex or labor intensive it is. The end result is that servicable goods are recyclyed to needy people and the prices realized from their sale by the charity goes to support the improverished and gives them a real chance to regain their dignity and become productive members of society. Without this kind of arrangement, the entire contents of well to do homes would end up being trashed in dumpster. If you are not familiar with the mechanisms of charitable donations, you should try try it yourself by cleaning out a large house and personally hauling the goods to a charitable trift outlet. Think how good you will feel for helping your fellow man, or maybe that's not your thing. You are probebly not a fan of homeless shelters, either.

  • Posted By: petpal @ 06/13/2008 11:47:15 AM

    I give quite a bit of money to animal charities. I never claim what I give at tax time. I figure; either you want to give or you don't. Although I may not be able to give as generously right now, I will still give something. It's where my heart is.

  • Posted By: rudhrach.madadh.alluidh @ 06/13/2008 10:55:49 AM

    Blaming the economy for charities not receiving as much? Hardly...how about the fact that Americans have changed. Political correctness and rules have taken stage over enjoyment, celebration, and giving. Records required for everything, new IRS rules and rules from the charities themselves, it makes the simple process of giving something to help others too difficult for some, and it takes away trust in those charity organizations. Combine that with the liberal give-me mentality that has begun to perverse this country, and you'll have your reasons why charities receive less. Times have changed, and it's not the economy that's the problem. Gas is lower here than just about anywhere else in the world, taxes are lower, food is cheaper ($1 for double cheeseburgers in fast food restaurants, $1 frozen meals, close to an $0.80 reduction over the past couple of years on milk) and our average salaries are much higher than anywhere else. No, I'd have to say the evidence clearly shows that the economy is not the culprit, it's an excuse by the media to keep people complaining as they have been for having more than anyone else, helping to establish support for areas they profit from. The middle class has grown, and yet less give. The threat of more being taken from the middle class, combined with increased middle class greed further enhanced by media attention and stretching or ignoring real US situations, more difficult rules...of all the reasons I can think of that could be the problem, the economy is nowhere on the list.

  • Posted By: guideboat @ 06/12/2008 8:30:11 PM

    As a retired hd of a 401-(K) non-profit, I feel for the charities that are having a tough time, but I feel that the main problem is that the middle class in America is sliping badly, which has a double problem, that is there are more people needing help, and the number of people who are able to give to charities is decreasing at an alarming rate. I sincerely hope that whoever is our next President can stop the slide of the middle class into poverty, and stop the bitter partisanship that has been practiced in the past 7 years.

  • Posted By: Tsumbra @ 06/12/2008 8:08:18 PM

    "George in Black and White"
    www.ilovepoetry.com/viewpoem.asp?id=95408
    Promised assistance to this group will also suffer!

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