The Scoop of Charity Funds & A RLSH/Costumed Activist Perspective

In this holiday season it becomes very common for organizations dedicated to helping the poor, homeless, orphaned children, people stricken with incurable ailments, ect. to solicit donations to help their efforts. Although  many organizations get donations that are not necessarily money, I'd like to focus on monetary donations and later on spin it within the realms of RLSH / costumed activists.

A very common question about donations to charity is "How much of it REALLY goes to help people and how much goes to overhead/running the organization?" Well the answer to this is rather surprising...and in many instances a bit depressing. Here's some information I picked up surfing the net in regards to this:

* The best charities are those that dedicate no more than 20% of their income to their overhead costs. Unfortunately, many prominent charities are at about 50%, something that reputable groups should be continually working on lowering. If your chosen charity has a 20% or below listed, then you know you're working with a good group that uses their funding

wisely. The fact that a particular organization uses a higher percentage of donations for operating expenses does not mean that you should not give. It is simply something that you should be aware of so that you can make an informed decision about where to direct your generosity.

* In 1999 Commercial fundraisers soliciting in Washington state reported raising more than $225 million in charitable donations during their most recent fiscal year. Of that amount, $131.5 million went for fundraising expenses and profit. The remaining $93.5 million was retained by client charities — an average of 41.5 percent. More than a third of the 80 fundraisers listed in the report provided their charity clients with 20 percent or less of their contributions they collected. Of those, seven provided their clients with ten percent or less, including one whose charity client received less than three percent of the total funds raised. 

* In 2007, California commercial fundraisers collected a total of about $370.3 million in charitable contributions. The average distribution to charity from all campaigns conducted by commercial fundraisers in 2007 was 43.63 percent, an increase of 7.15% over the average reported in 2005. In New York, A total of $178.7 million was raised on behalf of 442 charities in 2007 in the 553 telemarketing campaigns covered in this report...Charities retained 39.46 percent, or $70.5 million, of the total funds raised in the campaigns. In Massachusetts in 2007, professional solicitors registered in Massachusetts raised nearly $285 million. Of this amount only $101 million or 35% of the amount raised ended up with the charity. This means that on average, of every dollar that a professional solicitor raised for charity in 2007, only 35 cents went to the charity.

* Regarding Christmas cards tied to charity organizations/donations, some retailers such as Next and House of Fraser are giving as little as 6 percent of the money made on these cards to the charity, with the remainder going to the retailer and the manufacturer. Many consumers assume that the majority of what they pay on these cards goes to the charitable cause, but the report shows that is clearly not the case, with charities in some cases receiving very little of the money that is paid for the cards.

Now giving this a RLSH / costumed activist perspective, the downside is that because charity organizations are usually large scale business, their ability to gather and distribute funds is more efficient than if done by a RLSH/costumed activist. Also, the charity organizations are generally able to reach more people / area. So it might seem at first that the RLSH / costumed activist role is minimized. However, considering the examples given about, the advantage that a RLSH / costumed activist has is that very little if any of the moneys collected for charitable endeavors goes to any kind of overhead. This allows the RLSH / costumed activist to apply the majority of the funds to the task at hand, in essence buying more needed materials such as food & blankets for the homeless or toys for needy kids than a standard charity organization would do with the same amount of funds. Having done this myself several times I can tell you from experience that even a small group of RLSH / costumed activists who pool their efforts and funds towards a common goal can achieve impressive results and help a fairly good number of people. The key here is also geography and numbers.Alot of RLSH / costumed activists, such notables as Razorhawk, Thanatos, and DC Guardian make the most out of very little and they have become local iconic figures because of their tireless efforts to support and run charity-driven events.

So in the long run maybe the RLSH / costumed activists may not raise as much or distribute it to as many people but by lacking the need to pay overhead charges they get a bigger bang for the buck and they work with a greater sense of freedom in terms of how they can operate, not needing to worry about being bogged down by bureaucratic red tape. Costumes and uniforms draw in peoples curiosity and get them to ask questions. It's at that moment that the RLSH / costumed activists have a chance to tell people what they are about and what kind of charity / assistance they are sponsoring. By appealing t a persons sense of compassion, sense of curiosity/wonder, and wit ha well thought out approach a RLSH/costumed activist can make an effective difference for people who need it the most and by being less bound than a business based charity organization they make the dollar stretch more, something that is vital during the holiday season when necessity becomes all the more obvious.