How To Increase Charity Ratings
Charity ratings are a fickle thing with highly rated charities holding the number 1 position today being overtaken by new charities coming from nowhere. Charity Water is a recent and amazing example of this. Originality and the power of the Internet, are driving the ratings of brand new charities through the roof. A charity may not know today with a non-existent rating, but tomorrow it can be rated as number one by the New York Times as being the most amazing charity ever, and wham their rating goes from zero right to the top overnight.
Because the general public are swayed so much by the charity ratings the press and media give, a brand new charity can flourish very quickly with a flood of charitable giving being thrown its way. And of course when the media lose interest, then the charity rating can drop out of the sky overnight.
Charity rating directory listings
With scepticism running quite high with charity watchdogs pinpointing charity problems such as misconduct, having exceptionally high amounts of funds spent on admin or the misappropriation of funds, charity rating directory lists are flourishing. It’s so funny that philanthropic organizations that set out to give to others are now under the eye of charity watchdogs. Philanthropy is becoming a little complicated!
Institutions like Givespot.com, Guidestar.org etc. provide comprehensive listings of charity ratings. GiveSpot 100 list is the list of the 100 highest ranking charities that is provided by Givespot.com. Another one that provides similar data is charitynavigator.com which has a list of the top ten charities as well a charity check system. Finding out charities is made easy by this. The biggest charity director of US is Guidestar.org with lots of free data on charity as well as information that can be availed for payment. Though its name gives a different impression, Better Business Bureau is a charity directory that gives a list of both commercial and non-profit ventures of USA.
With enough charity rating guides, there is no data shortage for anyone who wants to get information on the 100 top charities, but what constitutes real rating is something different. What in reality makes a charity superior has nothing much to do with its ratings. There are characteristics that make an organization, whether charity based or otherwise, stand out from the rest.
Charity Ratings and trust in the public
A YouGov poll of 2005 stated that about 56 percent of the British population did not have a considerable amount of belief even in well known global charities like Oxfam and Save the Children. Even among the charities that had a good charity rating, only about 15 percent enjoyed the public’s belief in them.
Charity Warning Bells are more common
Trust in charities has dropped a lot in recent times. Yet who can blame the public. Charity watchdogs tell unsettling stories of very highmanagement salaries, charities taking as much as 60% of donations for overheads with their being little left for the actually charitable giving.
Recent studies show that the average costs of raising funds in the UK and Australia are’% or 22% respectively. In the USA, the Association of Fundraising Professionals found the statistic to be around 30%. These figures do not even include admin expenses, which are often much higher. Some charity givers see this as a key issue especially with charitable giving often in the media spotlight like it was in Singapore a fewyears ago. The additional negative focus tends to reduce charitable giving which is not good.
Charity ratings secret exposed
There is not much difference in the way in which charity organizations and commercial organizations try to get money. How they eventually use that money may be different, but their modus operandi for attracting that money is essentially the same.
To promote the charity rating and also to ensure better cash flow, there is a one and only formula – enticement.
When we see an object and would like to buy it, or make an investment in it, or want to connect with it, we tend to take a decision on the basis of how tempting it is to us. If it is very appealing, we might instantly buy it or plan to get it but if it is not all that tempting, we would definitely postpone the idea.
Charity Water was exceptionally successful in getting media backing and good charity rating because of their appealing idea. The scheme of charging a good price for a bottle of charity water, and using the profits thereof for getting clean water to areas where it was not available, was a fascinating idea that appealed to all.
The factors that make Charity Water quite fascinating and promote its rating are the following.
* They have a cool name – who would think of calling a charity Charity WaterThe person behind the charity was on overdrive with passion in sharing about their idea
* Their idea of the vocation and their message is lucid, plain and remarkable – sell water and give water – Buy One Give One
* They focused on the solution and not the problem. This is the number one mistake that loses charities rating points lowering their charity rating in people’s minds. No one wants to feel guilty and sad. They want to feel uplifted and happy. In this case happy to know they could make a difference in the lives of others by buying a simple bottle of water.
How to reduce you Charity Ratings in a heart beat
The fastest way in which a charity’s ratings would go down is when it turns itself less tempting by centring its attention on the problem. People are by and large disinclined to listen to negative things. On the contrary, most people are keen on listening to positive things that involve verve, dynamism, motivation and effort to bring in a fresh vision.
To prove this, all we have to do is look at ourselves in the company of our kids and know how our response is positive when children make a request in an exuberant, polite and eager manner. The same request, if made in an irritating or maudlin way, might elicit a negative response.
The images that a charity uses will affect its charity ratings. Using uplifting and inspiring images will uplift and inspire people. Uplifted and inspired people give more and spend more.
Social Enterprises improve Charity Ratings and solve the problems in Getting Funds
A new business model emerged a few years ago called Social Enterprise . This in a way is a hybrid mix between a charity and a business. Some entrepreneurs want to tackle social issues but they do not find the charity model effective or attractive enough.
The medium of a conventional business enterprise may not be suitable for many businessmen whose ideas of ethics and integrity would be contrary to the way decisions are made in a commercial world. Such people use a social enterprise to use their acumen and ability to create a profit and effect great changes in the social arena. A typical example of such a social entrepreneur is Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his rich contributions to improving social conditions.
Buy1GIVE1 commonly known as B1G1 (Buy 1 Give 1), is a global organisation that is a recent entrant into the world of charitable giving. It is a perfect blend of business and valuable causes functioning at the global level. Buy1GIVE1 has so minimised its expenses of fundraising and management that it is able to give for charity all the funds collected. The institution is similar in its attributes to the online organization Kiva.org, which has been promoted by Bill Clinton; unlike conventional charities, Buy1GIVE1 involves direct giving to charities. Many people are convinced that it is a better way for contributing things and receiving richly in return.
Successful businessmen, who are searching for a chance to give back richly to the society and to provide for deserving charities, fully understand the importance and properly structured working credos of institutions like Buy1GIVE1. Every single sale is able to affect a change somewhere – not only altruistically. It has also the ability to forcefully influence things in such a way that each act becomes a unique marketing story. There is a world of difference in the way in which Buy1Give1 works and those charities which give away thousands and thousands of dollars work, because Buy1Give1 lets their customers know what the joy o f giving is. Buy1Give1 transaction-based giving is a perfectly beautiful way of giving.
All ventures like Buy1GIVE1 particularize charities and these are mostly charities where help is considered to be fully necessary, with enough potential to attract contributions. Businessmen obviously understand how poignant situations attract customer interest and as such they tend to support such causes rather than give importance to the organisation’s rating. They are only too conscious of the customers’ proclivity to bond better with a stronger story than worry about charity rating.
Maple Muesli in Australia has partnered with Midday Meals in Mumbai, India. With every bag of muesli bought, a hungry child in India is fed. Midday Meals is a charity that feeds 125,000 Mumbai children every day for just US 30 cents per meal. The meals are provided in schools to keep kids off the streets and encourage learning while reducing begging and child abuse.
Maple Muesli has helped to put Midday Meals on the map as a worthy and well-rated cause in Australia. Maple Muesli share their giving story with all their customers increasing the natural rating of this amazing organisation in Mumbai without Midday Meals doing anything other than feed children. Effective Giving – The Era for Plain Charity Donations is ending
We will surely see a change in the landscape of the top 100 charities over the coming years as new and innovative and far more effective ways of giving are created. These days we are spoilt for choice on how we can make our charitable giving. Not all of them are efficient ways to make a difference.
Other methods of Charity Ratings
Some of the new and different ways to give are highlighted and rated in the table below. Charity Comparison Points
Some better known and not so well-known charities as well as Social Enterprises are evaluated and rated below so as to be of help to those who contribute to these.
THE SALVATION ARMY
PATH TO GIVING : DIRECT GIVING
The Salvation Army is one among the most well-known 100 charities of the world – Both individuals and enterprises make contributions directly to it.
OPENNESS – B – Not sufficiently open – Plenty of money is being collected – but the results are not always completely clear.
BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS – C – Contribution to Salvation Army gets mention in the press even if it is a one time contribution.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS -B – Heavy expenses are incurred for raising funds.
CONTRIBUTORS’CHOICE OF CHARITY – B – For direct giving, you can have a lot of charities to check out before settling which one is best.
POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE – C- Nothing new to offer in terms of market change.
PRODUCT (RED)
PATH TO GIVING : MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Product (RED) is a brand licensed to partner companies, to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.
OPENNESS – B – Not sufficiently open – Plenty of money is being collected – but the results are not always completely clear.
MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS – A – People and businesses love to support (RED) as it is backed by adored personalities like Oprah & Bono. Marketing results a little hard to track though.
EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS – C – Spends huge sums of money on advertisements – giving that money directly to Africa would have been more practical.
CONTRIBUTORS’CHOICE OF CHARITY – C – Partner businesses do not have much choice in the charities that receive their contributions – all are in Africa.
POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE – B – Products (RED) only partner huge companies and all their profits go to Africa.
THE BODY SHOP
WAY TO GIVING: BUSINESS TRADE & GIVING
The Body Shop is involved in community trade to help economically backward countries and makes large donations to causes from the profit they generate.
CANDOUR – B – Insufficient candour – Lots of money is donated – but result is not completely quantifiable.
ADVANTAGE TO BUSINESS – A-tve – Clients are by and large happy to become part of the community trade and are encouraged to buy more – the enterprise could afford to be more visible.
COSTS OF FUNDRAISING – A -Comparatively low – It is a good business pattern that makes a lot of donations to charities and enhances community trade.
DONOR’S CHOICE OF CHARITY – A – Enterprises are at liberty to choose where their contributions should go.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE – B – The potential for giving back to the community is substantial – but not everyone have the impetus and the extra energy to impel the change.
LIVE EARTH
PATH TO GIVING : EVENT FUNDRAISING
Live Earth consisted of a string of global musical programmes which set in motion a three-year campaign to battle climate change and was held on July 7, 2007.
OPENNESS – F – Intelligent Giving had reported that the takings from the concert tickets sales were not accounted satisfactorily.
BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS – B – It was beneficial to business sponsors as they got good media coverage, but as it was a single event results are not easily measurable.
COSTS OF FUNDRAISING – C – Huge amounts were spent on advertising and according to some the whole event was a damp squib without any actual goals.
DONOR’S CHOICE OF CHARITY – C – Only three charities could manage to get funds.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE – C – Such events can be held just once or at the most once a year. The amount collected generally goes to better known charities.
Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1 )
ROUTE TO GIVING: SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
B1G1 is a brand licensed to collaborate with any enterprise – uniting them with any cause across the globe. A fully comprehensive model.
CANDOUR – A – By giving for particular causes, makes sure that funds go exactly for that which it is intended. Customers get information on how exactly their money has made a change – i.e. the children whom it helped, or the environmental cause it protected.
MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS – A+tve – Great marketing value because of:
* Calculable giving * Media interest * Effective stories * Person to person * Returning customers
COSTS OF FUNDRAISING – A+tve – Absolutely no cost – B1G1 can oversee a charity’s needs for raising funds and also manage much of the administration as well. So the funds go entirely to the charity.
CONTRIBUTORS’CHOICE OF CHARITY – A – Business givers can choose their charity project or elect to give to a charity cause such as food or education, etc.
PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE – A – Unlimited. If more and more businesses can collaborate with charities internationally, the prospects for real change is colossal.
You Might Think Giving away Money Would Be simple!”
You would think that giving money is easy – pull out a wad of cash, write a cheque or punch in your credit card details. Yet, billionaires philanthropists like George Sores , have gone on the record as saying that effective giving is one of the hardest things to do. Developing nations receive billions of dollars every year and yet it often seems like nothing changes much.
People make changes by asking probing questions about the problems they find in front of them. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mohammed Yunus, by his introduction of the new category of banking known as Microfinance has made groundbreaking achievements in solving social problems and is leading the way in showing how social enterprise and consumption of goods can positively change the world. Other such ideas worth emulating are that of Buy1GIVE1 or ‘Trade – Not Aid’ of The Body Shop. The overwhelming importance of social enterprise has to be fully appreciated.
When queried as to how someone can effect a change in the world, Bill Gates pointed towards organisations like Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com) and Kiva.org which reward the giver richly. Kiva.org ensures that those who sponsor a business get regular updates via email from those businesses. Buy1GIVE1 also ensures this. With such communication, customers get a clear picture and come to know the stories behind the charities. For example, when they buy a laptop, someone who badly needs a computer might be getting it at some other corner of the world.
Next steps to increasing your Charity Ratings
Make sure that you have an open attitude, use the laptop effectively, and keep apart a little time to observe the novel and wonderful systems of charity that are being born. These function through the internet and are mostly network based.
As of now if one is not connected with good international networks via the internet, the chances of losing out are substantial even with good charity rating, tomorrow things are bound to change – totally.
Many enterprises emerge out of thin air nowadays and grow enough in the matter of maybe three years to be sold for more than a billion dollars. This was unconceivable ten years ago, though today it has become a routine state of affairs. All these online enterprises are doing the same thing – drawing on international networks or themselves making international networks.
Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One)
Buy1GIVE1 is a relatively new Social Enterprise founded by a Japanese lady called Masami Sato in’97. Today any business anywhere in the world can be a Buy1GIVE1 member, with membership for small businesses only costing $1 per day and contributions starting from just 1c per sale. Buy1GIVE1 is leading the Buy One Give One transaction-based giving global movement. Working with Buy1GIVE1 is easy for a charity worthy cause or a business. Their model is unique, flexible and inspiring. A business simply marries any or all of its products or services with a charity project (Buy1GIVE1’s or their own) and then every time they sell something record the sale and pay their contribution each month or quarter direct to their cause or through Buy1GIVE1.
You are strongly advised to create lasting bonds with Buy1GIVE1 and also motivate your business associates to join Buy1GIVE1. It is a singular and wonderful organisation doing stupendous work and no one can afford to ignore it.
A new epoch in charity giving
Companies that had no presence a few months ago are ravaging cyberspace with the echo of user acceptance. Services life Twitter , Facebook , MySpace , YouTube, NING and TipJoy are places you must have a presence in. Organisations like Change The Present, Kiva and companies like Buy1GIVE1 you should be building relationships with. These are all the new future and will all help maintain and build charity ratings. Today is a new opportunity to build a new future.
Discover more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.
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