by Henry Barrios
Collectively, Americans gave $373 billion to charity in 2015. Given such a large number, it is not surprising that most people automatically think that the bulk of giving comes from foundations and corporations.
In reality, however, individuals accounted for 80 percent of that giving. Clearly, your philanthropy makes a difference. But when was the last time you stopped to consider the impact of your giving or the underlying causes that prompted your donation?
Creating a charitable giving plan is a relatively quick and easy way to bring clarity to your philanthropy. Using three simple steps, you can organize your annual giving, increase your connection to the charities you support and have a greater impact on the things that matter most to you.
If you have a partner or spouse, you may want to develop a plan together. This can also be an excellent project to involve the whole family, teaching children the power of giving. Simply start by considering what is important to you.
1. What do you care about?
Identify two or three causes that are most important to you. If you are working with a partner or as a family, limiting the list to two or three may be difficult. Try identifying a solid handful. Knowing what you value, what you are passionate about or the change you would like to see happen in the world is the first step in developing your plan.
2. What impact do you have?
Select one or two individual charities that directly support each of your causes. There are many ways to select charities that you want to support but linking the cause you care about to an organization’s mission and then using tools to measure their effectiveness will help you to narrow what often begins as a lengthy list. A great starting point for this step is the charity’s website. Next, access additional information about the selected charities using Guidestar.org or CharityNavigator.org.
Finally, consider answering the following questions for each charity: What does the organization do? How do they do it? How do they know if they are making a difference?
If coming up with that initial list is a challenge, you can always access the Charity Giving Guide on Kern Community Foundation’s website (kernfoundation.org). There you will find over 140 charities serving our community, organized by areas of service.
