Find out where your money goes before you donate

Will you be giving a donation to a charity this month? Before you give you might want to read the articles below. One is a story of 4 charities who raised $187 million dollars, and they kept it! Well, most of it…about 3% of it was used to help cancer patients. And this isn’t the first time a story like this has been published. It turns out that this more common than you or I would like it to be.

• Four Cancer Charities Exposed
• Think Before You Go Pink – Margaret Feinberg

What’s the solution?

Donate directly to an individual: It’s hard not to know someone fighting breast cancer these days. Chances are you have a friend or family member who has been touched by this disease. Why not give to them directly and guarantee that your donated dollar will go to helping someone in the fight.

Donate to a local support group: There are local support groups and programs in your community that support breast cancer patients directly. Talk to them and find out where their greatest need is and learn how your dollars will be put to work in your community.

Do something radically different: I was amazed to see locals stopping by the treatment center and giving to the patients directly while my wife was going through chemo. This wasn’t normally a monetary donation (though it could be), but a donation of love & time + whatever you’re passion is. One local painted rocks with little encouragements written on them and dropped them off for patients to take home. Someone else delivered baked goods to the clinic. Maybe these don’t seem like big deals, but believe me they make a BIG impact on the hearts of patients in the moment.

However you choose to get involved, please be sure to do your research before you make a donation of money or time. Make sure your efforts go to helping those in need 🙂

-William

PS. So you might be asking “what about the pink thing”? Well, it’s a nice color 😉 I used it when building this website because it brings universal recognition to this disease. But please remember that this month is not about pink. October is about the people who have been touched by breast cancer. It is about those still fighting, those lost and those we call survivors. It is about you showing your support for those you know, and those you don’t. It is about making people aware of the truth of this disease. And it is about hope. And that’s just my 2c 🙂