Tough Times Call for Smarter Giving

South Side Mission Kings Kids Christian Day Care teacher Melissa Bowden helps a young friend enjoy the playground.

Today the Peoria Journal Star ran a piece from the Sunday Wall Street Journal, entitled "Charities: Tough Times Call for Smarter Giving."

The article listed the following questions to ask charities in which you might want to invest...

1. What portion of spending goes to programming (versus operational costs)? A figure of 75% or more is considered good.
2. What have its accomplishments been?
3. What challenges does it face?
4. Can I direct my gifts to one of the charity's particular programs if I want?
5. Does it sell its donors' names to other groups? Can I ask that my information not be shared?

South Side Mission's answers to these questions posed by the Wall Street Journal are as follows...

1. Our program costs are just under 80%.
2. Our accomplishments are listed each month on this blog, under the posting "ministry by the numbers." Look and see.
3. Our biggest challenge is faith. In this economy it is easy to walk by sight and not by faith, with the constant barrage of bad news coming from the media. But the fact is, God can meet "all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." He is meeting all of our needs even though we are seeing record numbers of people coming to the Mission to use our many services for the poor. As of the end of April, we were just $15,000 off our budget, which, based on a $3 million budget, is not much at all. Thank you God.
4. Yes, you may direct dollars toward a particular ministry or even project. Many donors do. Just let us know.
5. We NEVER sell or give away names of our donors. EVER. Our Board and myself are rigidly against this.

For the full text of the article, visit the link below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124311556111550123.html#mod=sunday_journal_primary_hs