mudwerks: (via How to Determine If a Charity Like Kony 2012 Is Worth Your Money | Lifehacker) …In this case, you’ll find that, of $13.7 million in revenue, Invisible Children spent 2.8 million on grants (about 20.4% of their considerable revenue). Already, Johnson suggests that at this grant amount, you should “start looking for comparables“—i.e., other charities with the same goals, possibly including those Invisible Children gives grant money to. If you examine their expenses more closely (Part IX of the 990), you’ll see that, beyond grant giving, not much money at all is going to direct services. Let’s break it down a little: $2.8 million goes to grants, as noted above Over $1 million goes to travel $851k goes to production costs $357k goes to film costs $244k goes to professional services Essentially, the flush non-profit spends as much on travel, film-making, and lobbying as it does on serving. That’s generally a red flag. They also granted more money in 2009 than 2010, even though their revenue increased by over $4 million between the two years. You can read more from the Guardian… [this is really good info on how to determine if you want to contribute to a particular organization - not just this one… but it is very illuminating to see the inner monetary workings of this one…]
urbanlif3: Blog this if you already haven’t, and if you don’t know what it is then find out!