Do you ever find yourself frustrated that the charities that you give to keep a huge portion of your donation to themselves to cover “overhead” costs? I know I feel that way a lot, so when I come across a charity that gives 100% of your donation to the kids, I want to scream about it from the rooftops.
This is where the Child Foundation Charity comes in. They are foundation that helps children with physical birth defects get the surgeries they need to look normal again. They help children from all over the world. Each one of these surgeries costs around $30,000, and some children need multiple surgeries to fix their birth defects. As a mother of two little ones, my heart certainly goes out to these children. I remember how cruel children can be to one another and even how society can be towards you if you look different.
Now, I said that 100% of your donation goes to the kids. It does. They have a donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, who covers the operating costs of this charity. Every cent you donate goes towards these kids surgeries’. For me, that is huge. You can directly help a child. Granted, most of us do not have the $30,000 to help with the surgery, but a little here and there can definitely add up. You can even see some of the kids they have helped and those still waiting for surgeries. When you read their stories and look at their pictures, I can’t help but tear up. This could very easily be one of my children needing this. I am just happy that there are charities out there willing to help these children. If their stories touch your heart, you can even send these kids an e-card to help brighten their spirits. Now, if you know some one who is in need of this, please send them their way. Their motto is “giving children worldwide the quality of life every child deserves”.
The Child Foundation Charity was founded in January of 2007. Up until now, they have been able to help 6 children live a normal life. Their goal? They would love to be able to help 10 – 15 kids a year! However, they need help from you to be able to do this. If you would like to donate, they have a page set up to walk you through the process (you can even use Paypal!). Another way you can help is to post about this charity and get the word out. The more people who know about this, the better! A third way you can help is if you are in the Miami area. They are having an inaugural fundraising event on September 27, 2008 at The Rusty Pelican in Key Biscayne, Florida. It starts at 7 pm and includes complimentary cocktails provided by Bacardi. Afterwards, you will enjoy the house specialty of filet mignon and lobster, followed by a night of dancing to a live band, and a silent and live auction. The ticket prices are $125 per person or $1,000 for a table of 10. Lastly, you help by donating to the above event by donating items to be used for the live and silent auctions, by purchasing an ad in the Event Program for the night, and donating promotional or sample items from your company to be included in the gift bags for our guests. As you can see, there are so many things you can do to help!
I know this ended up being a really long post, but there were so many important things to tell you. Let me sum it all up for you. If you want to help kids with physical birth defects live a normal life and have 100% of your donation go towards their surgeries, then the Child Foundation Charity is for you!
Long post but worth it and for a good cause 🙂
Thank you so much for highlighting such a wonderful organization. Have you considered asking them to join Squidoo as a non-profit partner? People can make pages there which directly give their advertising and affiliate revenue to a non-profit organization. I got both of my "favorite" charities signed up and there already making a few dollars each month (and every little bit helps!).
Sounds like a pretty worthwhile charity. I hope they can afford to keep up with their admin costs and reach their goals.
Thanks for posting this.
Okay….I know this is totally unrelated to your great post. BUt I have been meaning to tell you for quite a long time….I LOVE the design of your blog. I have been running across your blog for a while now and every time I think "wow, it is amazing". I just wanted to finally let you know!
Our children are our real wealth, thanks for the excellent info. What will we be without a legacy?
Here in the UK people give sooo much to charity, it seems there is always some sort of sponsored event going off or someone in the office who is looking for a little sponsorship – it must make us feel better inside i suppose.
I do agree with the earlier post though about charity organisations keeping too much for themselves as 'overheads' – surely this almost makes them run as a business.
Being naturally curious I do wonder what funds their costs. Charities need to be productive, but also sustainable.
It has always annoyed me that charities can take so much of your donation as admin costs. Most of the popular charities here in the UK actually tell you how much of your donation goes to the cause out of every pound you donate, So you can decide whether it is worth donating.
After years of sitting on the fence, and finding myself always distracted 😳 I am participating in the Save the Children Foundation. However, this is a truly noble cause and I very much appreciate you writing about it!
You are right… even small amounts $5, $10, $40 would start to quickly add up, as long as the word is getting out there for people to hear!
Hi Lisa.
Speaking as one who has actually run a non-profit organization, admin costs are a constant dilemma. The charity in your post is truly blessed to have a benefactor like that!
Most philanthropic types love to give to the actual cause for which a charity is set up, but most don't realize what it costs in this day and age to simply keep the doors open.
If we had more donors like the one you've mentioned, who knows what might be accomplished.
Good post. Thanks!
What a great foundation. I am adding them to my list of charities to donate to this year. Thanks for the great post Lisa!
If you're still looking for information on Squidoo – if you click my link, I've written a page on how much money my lenses have made for charities. It's not a lot, but I've only been at it for a few months. Plus, I'm only one person – add up what other people are contributing and it can be substantial. My goal for the rest of this year is to have my lenses consistantly bringing in at least $100 per month for charity, and I do think that is a reasonable goal. My payout donations for June were almost $45 – all for my chosen charities.
What a great cause! And the suggestions and comments in the comments are worthwhile, too! cchiovitti has given me ideas – thanks!
Nice job Lisa. Without the children, there is actually no future for our generation. This is a great foundation that deserve a place in one's list of worthy charities.
Thanks for sharing, it sounds a great charity. Cchio's idea about Squidoo is definitely worth doing – it would be great if they could help more children.
I always check out the charities before i give money to. Most of them are ripping off the money and putting in there pockets.
Do not know how some one can do it.
Nice site and i wish you the best raising money. Couldn't think of a better cause.
Awesome job, Lisa. I think what touched me the most was your comment about how children can be treated by other children. This is so overlooked at times and while secondary to medical reasoning, is still important in a child's development. Great foundation and great post. Thank you. ~Jerry
I would just like to say something about the 100% goes to the cause and not to administration. There are administration costs; they are just being picked up by someone else.
This is a situation I had to deal with the agency I work with. A well known foundation contributed $100,000 to a project we were starting (we also contributed $100,000), but none of the funds could go to administration. This foundation gets to tout in their publications and press releases that all of the money goes to the cause and none of it goes to administration. But how does the project actually get accomplished? We as an agency have to provide the administrative costs or find someone who will. $100,000 can’t be set on a desk and magically perform miracles to help the cause.
So it makes it look like our administrative costs are higher than the foundation – but we each contributed $100,000. If we show a 10% administration cost, the reality is that we paid 5% and the foundation paid 5% – it just doesn’t look that way.
When I was looking to contribute to a charity on my own I ran into the same thing. There was an agency that provided similar services to the one I was interested in and showed lower administrative and non-cause costs. But after looking closer, it became apparent that the difference came in advertising. But it was the first charity, the one with higher advertising and therefore non-cause costs that actually got me motivated toward that particular cost. In a way, the lower administrative overhead cost charity was piggybacking on the other. Without the one charity spending more on getting the information out, how would the other be doing? I opted to go with the charity that got me involved.
Another point. The cost of administration is going to depend a lot on how mature the cause is. In the example I gave earlier with our agency, our administrative costs had to be higher because it was a start up. Over time the admin costs will come down as the structure is set up and the program operates for a while (or should come down).
And last, when an anonymous donor is picking up the operational costs, that is money the donor could also be giving to the cause, in this case an operation. So it may feel like every dollar you contribute toward a $30,000 surgery is going toward the child, but in a way it is going toward administration since you could just as well pick up 10% of the admin cost and let the anonymous donor’s contribution also go toward the surgery. It is a pot of money; were my particular dollar goes is irrelevant if the overall need is served in a cost effective manner. And you still don’t necessarily know if the admin costs are high or low for this organization – maybe that donor is spending way too much on admin and could be contributing more toward surgery.
This is not meant to attack this particular charity, but jut to encourage us to think about these catch phrases we hear – such as “I don’t want to pay for some administrator.” But somebody has to perform necessary actions for jobs to get done. And those administrators also need to feed their families.
Thanks