Know Where Your Charitable Dollars are Going

Well, by now the Salvation Army bellringers are out in force. I even had someone post an ill-informed email up at my workplace talking about how much money CEOs of different charities are paid. Of course I don't have to tell you that the Salvation Army CEO was listed as the lowest paid on the list. A quick Google search and trip to Snopes and you learn that most of the numbers are either outright fabrications or at best outdated. The people who pass along or start this email again each year fail to update who the CEOs are and most have since been replaced, even at the Salvation Army. The email claims that he was paid a mere $13,000 annual salary plus housing. The actual salary is closer to $238,000  18 times what is listed in the email. While its no surprise that a chain email has bad information in it, I am constantly surprised the number of people who accept this information as fact just because a friend sent it to them.



I think a lot of people donate to the Salvation Army without even knowing much about their practices, policies, and discrimination. Many people do not realize that the Salvation Army (SA) is actually a protestant church. They were founded on the idea of soup, soap, then salvation. The idea was to give to those in need and in return use it as an opportunity to push their version of god onto them. According to Forbes, their management expenditures are approximately $393 million and they receive government funding of $384 million. So, whether you choose to donate or not your tax dollars are already going to fund this church. Which brings me to my next point, they spend quite a bit of time and money actively campaigning against gay rights. They have led campaigns to stop or overturn equal rights laws in America as well as other countries. A reader on the Freethought Blog left this comment and I felt it a good example of their discrimination.

Back in my theist days in the mid to late 80s, I was a deacon at the Metropolitan Community Church in Tucson. MCC is an evangelical denomination that serves a mostly lesbian and gay demographic, and MCC-Tucson was, at the time, located downtown.

We occasionally got homeless people coming by the church in need of services; often, they were gay and knew that they could get help from us. We kept a list of service agencies in the area, and would refer people to where they could get the assistance they needed, such as food, shelter and clothes. On that list was a SA men’s shelter three blocks from the church.

Eventually, the Salvation Army learned that the community church down the street from them was run by and for *gasp* homosexuals, and that we welcomed people rather than condemned them. The Tucson commandery sent us a polite but pointed letter informing us that all of their shelters and other services have been instructed NOT to take our referrals. It seemed they preferred to have gay men sleeping on the streets where they might be assaulted, robbed, even freeze to death (Tucson is pretty high in the Rockies, and the very dry air means winter lows in the 20s were not uncommon) than emulate the Good Samaritan.

It would be sad to see any charitable organisation turn away someone based solely on their sexual orientation, but remember they receive tax dollars as part of their funding. So while I encourage everyone to donate to charities I also encourage you to know where your money is going. I think it's worth a few mouse clicks to make sure you're funding an organisation that fits with your beliefs and morals. I have placed a link below to a list of secular charities to consider when donating. I recommend taking a look at Kiva especially if you want to choose exactly where your dollars are going.

Secular Charities - http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Secular_charities

Forbes ranking of top 200 charities, (you can sort by their efficiency)-http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/14/200-largest-us-charities-11_rank.html