A Poverty Cause is any organization that works with the TILE community to improve the lives of the billions around the world – and here in the United States – who suffer under the crushing weight of poverty. Poverty is a complicated issue, therefore, Poverty Causes address a variety of poverty-related dimensions from access to clean water, education, and providing loans to help the poor start small businesses.
Archive for the ‘Give Page’ Category
A Poverty Cause is…
Monday, August 10th, 2009How much do you have to give to make your contribution count?
Monday, August 10th, 2009How much you give to charity really isn’t as important as the fact that you give something. However, you might consider that charitable organizations spend a whole bunch of their time and money just asking you for more cash. If you only give a couple dollars a year to an organization, it might get eaten up just by all their continued efforts to get you to give more. So it makes sense to focus on the causes that you really care about, and give more to them. To learn more about which causes matter to you, check out the TILE GIVE section.
A Letter of Inquiry is…
Monday, August 10th, 2009A letter of inquiry (or LOI) is a one or two page description of what a nonprofit organization does and a request for financial support. Foundations and major donors often require them to be considered for funding.
Why do some nonprofits have a for-profit arm?
Monday, August 10th, 2009Frequently (especially in tough economies), nonprofits struggle to meet their costs on grants and donations alone. When these organizations consider their options for a financially sustainable future, they sometimes choose to create a for-profit arm – though the goal of the for-profit business is generally just to finance the nonprofit’s mission and activities when its members can’t do so by other means.
Like any other organization, nonprofits need money to accomplish their goals, or even just to pay employees and keep the lights on, and there isn’t any way around that. So if they can run a business that doesn’t conflict with their mission or ideals, how is that so much different from throwing fundraising parties or soliciting donations? But having a for-profit arm doesn’t turn a nonprofit into a full-scale business. Why? The difference is that, in a regular company, the goal is to make money for the owners of the business. The more money the company makes, the richer its owners (and stockholders) get and, by extension, the more they’re willing to pay their employees. But even if a nonprofit has a for-profit arm, the extra money generated goes toward the nonprofit’s mission, not in its CEO’s wallet.
A Demonstration Grant is…
Monday, August 10th, 2009A demonstration grant is a grant made to fund a new project, program, or approach to a problem. The demonstration grant serves as a test – if the funded approach is successful, it can be put into wider practice.
A Site Visit is…
Monday, August 10th, 2009A site visit is a trip for funders to see the offices and meet the staff and sometimes beneficiaries of a nonprofit organization they are supporting. It’s a way of getting to know the orgainization better and can be an important part of due diligence before making the decision whether to donate or not.
Aren’t health and a clean environment human rights?
Monday, August 10th, 2009Deciding which causes you want to support – with time or money – can be confusing. If you give to just one cause, you might feel like you’re neglecting something else you care about, and it seems like some of the categories overlap anyway. Aren’t health and a clean environment human rights? It depends on who you ask. Even defining exactly what it means to be or have a human right isn’t simple.
The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human rights and other major documents have listed health and a clean environment as “human rights,” but what might be more relevant for you as a budding philanthropist to realize is that giving to an organization with a specific mission can have a broad impact. Many microfinance and poverty causes aim to help their constituents develop sustainable livelihoods – which has environmental and health implications as well financial ones. Helping to preserve and restore local environments can have major health and economic benefits as well. All of these things make people better able to live happy, meaningful lives, which is the true spirit of human rights.
The point is to find a cause that excites you and in which you will enjoy becoming involved, whether by giving money or time. The impact you make might be far wider-reaching than you think.
An Education Cause is…
Friday, August 7th, 2009An Education Cause is an organization that works to improve people’s lives by providing access to educational resources that aren’t available to them for many reasons. An Education Cause might support teachers in high-need areas, provide books and computers or other supplies, or do anything to help people realize their dreams of earning an education and the possibility for a better life.
An Environment Cause is…
Friday, August 7th, 2009A Matching Gift is…
Friday, August 7th, 2009A matching gift is a donation that an individual or foundation pledges to a nonprofit if they can raise the sum of the proposed matching gift from other sources. For example, if the Ford Foundation pledges a $500,000 matching gift to Amnesty International, Amnesty must raise an additional $500,00 to receive the $500,000 matching grant from Ford.