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Short Stuff: Charity Tips · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff you generous person. You.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I'm Josh and there's Chuck and this is short stuff. Uh,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and that means what we should begin now, that's right. Uh.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: This is from our buddy day Ruse and how Stuff
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: works from their website. And this is one that I
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: want to wedge in there before the end of the year,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: because if anyone is like me, you have a mad
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: scramble at the end of the year to find the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: charity that you want to align with or charities. And
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I feel like we do that every year and we're
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: doing that again this year. So this is some This
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: is one of those good helpful advice ones about how
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to find and suss out the good ones. Yeah, And
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it basically comes down to this. There are groups and
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: organizations that have websites that are dedicated to pointing you
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  Speaker 1: in the right direction to where you can confidently and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: comfortably donate your money and know that it's being put
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to good use and also which one is to steer
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  Speaker 1: clear of too. So um, there's a bunch of like
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: different points that this covers. I think this is just
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a helpful one. Check it was a good pick. Yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: those sites and we're gonna talk about. You know, Dave
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  Speaker 1: interviewed some of these people from these sites. But charity
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: watch and give well, Uh, those are the two standards
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  Speaker 1: if you want to go find out if these charities
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  Speaker 1: that you're looking into her good and worthy and honest
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and effective. That's where you should start. But you should
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  Speaker 1: also dig into like if your first question is are
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: they effective, dig into the charity a little bit. Go
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to their website. They will probably if there are a
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  Speaker 1: charity worth supporting, have an outcome section uh in their
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  Speaker 1: annual report and check it out and see, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if they have concrete goals that say we fed this
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  Speaker 1: many people this year, or with this much money, we
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: can house this many people. That's a really good first
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: thing to look for. Yeah, and you might say, huh,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: that seems pretty good. All right, here's a check kind
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of thing. Um. You can also go to other sites
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  Speaker 1: like charity watch, Give Well, Charity Navigators another good one,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and um they've done a lot of this this homework
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  Speaker 1: for you, and in particular give well um has identified
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  Speaker 1: like nine particular areas that certain charities are like really
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  Speaker 1: killing it at. And the the idea is is that
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  Speaker 1: these charities that they've picked that you can go and
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  Speaker 1: be like, I'm picking this, and you will know you're
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: you're donating to one of the top best charities that's
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  Speaker 1: going to put your money to the best use that
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  Speaker 1: you could possibly find. Um. And the criteria is that
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  Speaker 1: they are evidence based, so they can definitely show that
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  Speaker 1: the money you're you're donating is having an effect, um
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  Speaker 1: their cost effective, which kind of ties into that. They're
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  Speaker 1: also very transparent. That's a really big one too. You
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  Speaker 1: don't want it to be opaque and you want to
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  Speaker 1: be able to get a straight answer about how your
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: money is being used. And then lastly, and this is
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: really important check that I think a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: don't think about they're underfunded, that they need money, they
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  Speaker 1: actually need money, because there's a lot of charities out
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  Speaker 1: there that actually don't need your money. Um, they're doing
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  Speaker 1: just fine. These guys pick charities that I actually need
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  Speaker 1: money that can really make a big impact with that money. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and if you know, if you don't have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of money to give, it's not like you know, some
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  Speaker 1: places need you know, millions and millions of dollars to
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  Speaker 1: build this new big whatever. Some charities, uh that they
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  Speaker 1: mentioned from give Well, Like it doesn't cost a lot
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  Speaker 1: of money to get uh insecticide treated nets to people
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  Speaker 1: who UH to you know, in countries where they have
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  Speaker 1: a malaria problem, so you know, give a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of money to them, you'll know that you paid for
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: this many nets. And it's a really sort of inexpensive
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  Speaker 1: way to make a difference if you don't have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of doughe to give away exactly. Um. They also
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  Speaker 1: they focus on give Well in particular focuses on global
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  Speaker 1: health and global global poverty because those are the two
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  Speaker 1: areas where like a little bit can make a big,
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  Speaker 1: big difference, like literally saving lives with just you know,
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  Speaker 1: a few dollars a year. Yeah. Um. Another question is
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  Speaker 1: if you start to dig into charities, you're gonna find
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  Speaker 1: like one of the things they broadcast is how much
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  Speaker 1: their executives make, um, how much their overhead is administrative costs?
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  Speaker 1: Another big one is fundraising costs. How much money do
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  Speaker 1: they have to spend to raise a dollar in in donations?
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  Speaker 1: And even when you start to dig into him, you
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  Speaker 1: might not really have much frame of reference, like is
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  Speaker 1: half a million dollars like or a million dollars? Is
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  Speaker 1: that a lot like that seems like a lot for
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  Speaker 1: somebody who's running a charity, but is it. And these
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  Speaker 1: sites have actually kind of gone to the trouble of
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  Speaker 1: like really getting into the nitty gritty to say like, actually,
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  Speaker 1: this is a really good charity despite that metric. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Like what you need to look at is percentages, and
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  Speaker 1: they will help you break it down, or the website
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  Speaker 1: usually breaks it down for you. But they recommend to
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  Speaker 1: look for a minimum of sixty of the charity's budget
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  Speaker 1: going on direct program services. And if you really want
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  Speaker 1: like an efficient charity, that'll be closer to but not
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  Speaker 1: to be um, like, don't look at the raw numbers
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  Speaker 1: because just because the charity like spends next to nothing
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that could make them actually less effective running
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  Speaker 1: on a shoestring. Like you got to spend a little
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  Speaker 1: money to a raise the money like you talked about
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  Speaker 1: and to be effective. So uh, don't just look at
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  Speaker 1: a larger number for administrative costs and dismiss it out
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  Speaker 1: of hand. You want to look at that percentage. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Another thing that they do is also they see through
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  Speaker 1: the or they know the kind of tricks that some
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  Speaker 1: less reputable charities will do to make themselves feel look
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  Speaker 1: more efficient, like they attract more money. Um. And so
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  Speaker 1: they'll have sorted through all this when you go to
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  Speaker 1: like these sites. And also, just while we're talking about this, Chuck,
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  Speaker 1: our beloved co ED Cooperative for Education, UM, so highly
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  Speaker 1: efficient charity spends about sev on programming. Co ED spends
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  Speaker 1: eighty five point two percent directly to program and also
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  Speaker 1: there there um uh you know Joe the executive director,
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  Speaker 1: he breaks in seventy five grand a year for this
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  Speaker 1: and he's he runs the show. Um. They also have
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: an efficiency rating to where they spend nine cents for
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  Speaker 1: every dollar that they raise in donations, which is really outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: Plus lastly, Chuck, they're underfunded too. They can survive one
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  Speaker 1: point five seven years on their current funds, which means
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  Speaker 1: that they can actually use the money that you send
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  Speaker 1: them and then you you'll know they're putting it to
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  Speaker 1: good use. To Yeah, I mean, some of these charities
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  Speaker 1: that you go to can survive the next twenty years,
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  Speaker 1: like without getting another dollar, which is great. That means
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of people have given. But maybe maybe seek
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: out the underfunded is some good advice. Should we take
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: a break. Yeah, let's all right, we'll take a break
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and we'll be right back with a few more tips
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: for you. All right, good tips so far? Another one
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: so far? I agree? And boy that's I knew that
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: about co ED, but every time I hear it, it's
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: just heartwarming. It's a good a good charity that we
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: got aligned with many years ago. Uh. One question that
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of people ask is it better to give
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  Speaker 1: small donations to a few charities are one bigger donation
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  Speaker 1: to one? And you know this sort of is a
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  Speaker 1: personal decision to a large degree. Uh, what they really
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  Speaker 1: suggest is don't just spread it around to spread it around,
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  Speaker 1: only spread it around if you can really dig in
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  Speaker 1: and do this kind of research to make sure you're
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  Speaker 1: doing the right thing. Yes, which is a great I mean,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: that's just great advice. Like you you you, it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: seems as long as you're you're not following for like
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the marketing and you're actually like giving each charity that
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  Speaker 1: you're you're you're donating to like the same amount of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: thought that you would if you just focused on one.
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  Speaker 1: Why not? It doesn't hurt at all. Um. But there's
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  Speaker 1: a person over at give well, um who points out, like,
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  Speaker 1: if you're going to if you're going to pick a charity, though,
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  Speaker 1: there's a way you can even maximize it further, which
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  Speaker 1: is to give a roughly the same amount every year
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  Speaker 1: about the same time every year, because then they'll start
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  Speaker 1: to see that, oh, wait, we can depend on this
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: this check from Chuck, who's a super nice guy. He
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  Speaker 1: sends it in every year, and they'll actually like figure
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  Speaker 1: that into their budget and then start planning according accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: rather than being like, we can only afford this this
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  Speaker 1: year and then all of a sudden they have more
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  Speaker 1: money for nets, but they didn't order nets early enough
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  Speaker 1: and now there's a problem and malaria's still spreading. They'll
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  Speaker 1: be able to budget for more nets if they know
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  Speaker 1: that there's a certain amount coming from you each year.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. And if you give them a pretty good
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  Speaker 1: donation that they'll probably email you and say, hey, this
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  Speaker 1: is great. Uh, can we count on you for next year? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, they gotta they got to figure out
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  Speaker 1: that budget and it really helps them to know what
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  Speaker 1: they're looking at year after year. But that's right. Also, Chuck,
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  Speaker 1: if it's if it's really big enough and it's a
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  Speaker 1: terrible charity, they'll send you a gold plated diamond encrusted
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  Speaker 1: malaria as a thank you gift so you can wear
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  Speaker 1: it around to fancy holiday parties and just be like,
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  Speaker 1: oh this, I got this for donating. Another question is
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  Speaker 1: you know, are you being scammed as this charity of fraud?
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  Speaker 1: There are frauds, for sure, I think in Dave points
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  Speaker 1: out that the FTC investigated and found more than a
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  Speaker 1: hundred actions against dozens of fraudulent charities. Uh. Sadly, a
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  Speaker 1: lot of these were claiming to serve US military veterans
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  Speaker 1: in their families, which is just reprehensible of course, but uh,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't happen as much as you might be afraid
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  Speaker 1: it does. But you need to like make sure you're
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  Speaker 1: donating to the charity. A lot of them have similar
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  Speaker 1: names to really great charities. So one example that they
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: pointed out was the Breast Cancer Research Foundation versus the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Breast Cancer Research and Support Foundation. And Breast Cancer Research
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Foundation is great. They get an A plus and their
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  Speaker 1: budget goes to supporting breast cancer research and they spend
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  Speaker 1: seven dollars for every one raises. The Breast Cancer Research
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  Speaker 1: and Support Foundation earns an f from charity Watch eight
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  Speaker 1: percent eight percent of its budget goes to to actual programming,
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  Speaker 1: and it spends eighty seven dollars for every hundred that
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  Speaker 1: it collects. Yeah, not on programming, yeah A seven Yeah,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: go on gold plated mosquito nets. Probably maybe, But you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that's just a point. It's like, I'm not gonna like
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: call them a scam or anything, so I haven't done
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  Speaker 1: a lot of research on them, but those numbers are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: really bad, and their name is awfully close to a
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: really good breast cancer organization. Yeah, and the fact that
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: they are just seems a little fishy. But I think
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and even an even bigger trap that you have to
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: watch out for, especially if you're trying to suss out
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: whether a charity is good when are not on your own,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: is that, Um, there's a lot of charities out there
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  Speaker 1: that just they mean well and they're trying to do well,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: they're just not that good at it, and so your
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: money is just not going to be spent as wisely
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  Speaker 1: as it might with another charity. Again, the way to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: resolve this is to just go to charity watch, Charity Navigator,
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  Speaker 1: give Well, some of those sites that really know what
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: they're doing, and say, oh, this is highly rated, I'll
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: give them some money. Yeah. I think sometimes people forget
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: these are nonprofit businesses, and running a business is still
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: running a business, and some people aren't very good at it.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: That's right. What was the last one here? The last
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  Speaker 1: one is and a lot of people want to give
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: locally to help their communities, and that is absolutely great, um,
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  Speaker 1: But the but don't do it well. The thing is
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: is if you are doing that, there's a good chance
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: that if you stop and reflect on it, you might
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: come to the conclusion that you're doing this to feel
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: good about yourself, maybe to to the for the fields
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you get out of it. And if you really stop
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and look at um with a just a just a
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: kind of sober view of how to help the most
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: people with the you know, whatever money you're donating, you're
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: probably going to find that there's people outside of your community,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: whether you wherever you live in the developed world that
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it might even benefit from it more. Who knows. I
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: don't think anybody in charity says don't give locally. It's
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: just saying don't overlook global charities, including big ones, um
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: entirely in favor of giving locally, like consider consider both. Yeah,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and I think one piece of a device they gave.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Which is really good is look at it from a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: cause point of view, Like if you're uh, if you're
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: into the environment, let's say, and you really want to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: support the environment as your only cause this year or
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: next year or every year, maybe look into a local
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: thing that's doing something like planting trees locally in neighborhoods.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And then maybe also look at a big global environmental
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: uh cause that can our charity that can really have
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: a big impact. And that way you're kind of spreading
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the wealth and covering a cause that you love in
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: both ways. That's right. Good. Whatever you do, just make
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: sure that you're you're giving to a good charity. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: bless you for for donating in the first place. However
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: you donate, blesses everyone. But since Chuck said blesses everyone,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of course everyone, that means short stuff is out. Stuff
• 13:20
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