What should you ask yourself before you fund a charity?
The short answer
Before you ask a charity anything, ask yourself five things. What you want to change, why, and for whom. Whether you want impact you can see this year or change that takes a decade. What blend of data and feeling you give on, and how you handle failure. How deep and how long you are in for. And what, honestly, you want back.
Last reviewed 2 min read
Most disappointing gifts were not the charity's fault. The donor never worked out what they wanted, so nothing could have delivered it. Five questions, an hour, and every later conversation gets shorter.
1. What do you want to change, why, and for whom?
People give to nurture what they love, to care for people in need right now, or to change how things work at the root. Most carry more than one, and the why is usually a person, a place or a moment. Knowing your order tells you which organizations will feel right.
2. Tangible and immediate, or broad and slow?
A meal served this winter is impact you can see. A policy changed in ten years is impact you may never see. Neither is better. Decide which you are, and say so.
3. Data or feeling, and what is your relationship with failure?
It is always both, so the question is the blend. If you mostly give on feeling, do not ask for reports you will not read. If you want evidence, be ready to pay for what it costs to gather. And know now that some of what you fund will not work, because the real answers in this sector are rarely straight lines. Donors who can hear that make better partners.
4. How deep, and how long?
A few organizations you know well, or many you know a little. One year, or three, or as long as it works. A charity plans around your answer, so it is kinder to have one.
5. What do you want back?
Nothing, a thank-you, a seat at the table, your name on something, your children involved. Every answer is fine. The only bad one is the answer discovered later.
Write the five down. A page is enough. It is what you check against when the nephew calls with an ask. It is also, more or less, what WellAdvised builds with a client and their advisor, in about the same hour.
Questions people also ask
- Do I need a giving plan to give well?
- No. Plenty of people give well on instinct. A plan helps when the amounts grow, when a family is involved, or when you find yourself saying yes to things you regret.
- Is it wrong to give for the recognition?
- No. It is wrong to want it and pretend not to. Charities are good at recognition when they know it is wanted.
- What if I do not know what I want to change?
- Start with what you have already given to. The pattern is usually there before the reasons are.
- How often should I revisit these?
- When something changes: a sale, an inheritance, a child joining the conversation, a gift that disappointed you. Otherwise every few years is plenty.