Where Your Donations Really Go | Fix The Future Series | Buy Your Kids a House Podcast

💰 Do Donations Really Go Where They’re Promised? 🤔

We all want to help — but how much of your donation actually makes a difference? In this video, we break down where donated money really goes, how charities spend funds. 🚨

🔍 What you’ll learn:
✅ How to spot transparent charities
❌ Red flags to watch out for
📊 Where to check real financial reports

🌟 Trusted tools & charities to research:
• Charity Navigator ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• CharityWatch 👀
• BBB Wise Giving Alliance ✔️
• GiveWell (evidence-based impact 💡)
• Direct Relief ❤️
• Against Malaria Foundation 🦟

💡 Donate smarter. Ask questions. Make your money matter.

👇 Drop a comment with a charity you trust — or one you want investigated!

#donations #charity #nonprofit #giving #scamalert #makeyourdonationcount
#philanthropy #charitycheck #charityresearch #transparency #nonprofits
#donationtips #smartgiving #giveback #ethicalgiving #charityawareness 💖

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Everyone wants to help, but our donations don't always help the way we think it does.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Yeah, and if you ever actually donated your time or money and wondered where it actually went, then this episode is definitely gonna be for you.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Because fixing the future doesn't always mean giving more, it's giving smarter.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Yep. Hey, welcome back to your uh Buy Your Kids a House podcast series. Again, I'm Matt. This is Andrew. And in this area, we do what they call what we call fix the future. Uh, this is where we look at problems facing our ourselves currently and in the future down the road, and what steps we can do to try to help fix those things so we, you know, have a better future for ourselves and our families. And this we're gonna kind of create a little even mini subseries within that where we look at charities. Uh, I know a lot of times you look at you know what charities we can donate our time or money or resources to, but like trying to figure out like what actually benefits from that.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

No, exactly. And today we're gonna be starting with something that in theory most people are all about, and that's donating either their time, their money, their resources. But we want to look into what are you donating to and is that money actually doing what you're being told it is? Is it going to the right places and being used for the right things?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, so let's go ahead and uh start diving in what our framework is gonna look like for this and what criteria we're gonna look at the the see the benchmarks and what actually charities and everything will have the biggest impact for us locally and nationally.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah, all right, let's take a look. All right, so first we're gonna be talking about the good intent problem. And this can be uncomfortable because even though we have good intentions, it doesn't automatically lead to good outcomes.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah, and a lot of these charities, you know, are built on a solid foundation of a message of what they're wanting to do, but a lot of times everything they they fall short of reaching those goals. And you know, we need to help identify which charities unfortunately aren't meeting the expectations that we have uh for the outcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah, and a lot of people hear that and they'll usually just shut down and sometimes say, Well, at least I'm giving anyway, but where is that money actually going? What are you actually giving to?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah. So again, we're gonna look into you know which charities maybe have unfortunately a little bit of the bloated salaries for those that are working in the top. Maybe there's some wasted inefficiencies in the process, or they're not even meeting the expectations of the outcome, and things are too tied up in the process of actually executing what it is you're trying to do. And instead of a lot of times where people say, like, well, I'm giving anyways, or maybe they look at, well, maybe I'm not gonna give because why give money if you know if it's not gonna do anything? We're gonna look at where we can streamline and maximize those dollars so we can actually make the impact that we want to make and help fix the future.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Absolutely. So let's start looking at where the money goes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

So now we're gonna kind of go over a little bit where donation dollars can go wrong, and we definitely see a lot of the same common issues over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Right, and high administrative overhead is one of the big issues.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah, so there's also another one which is really big, is also lack of transparency because a lot of times if uh you know the charity isn't showing you where the donation dollars are going, good or bad, that's definitely a red flag because probably means they're hiding something, whether it's you know, inefficiencies or spoilage or waste, or the money not actually is maybe maybe going to the pockets of the people at the top. So have that lack of transparency is a big red flag.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Oh no, that is a huge one. And also, you see that a lot in these large-scale donations or charities as well. And that's another issue is when you have these large companies that are doing it, a lot of that money is going to like advertisements and different things that are promoting them and not necessarily the charitable work that they do. They're just focusing on how they can maximize with the money that's donated.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah. And we're not saying that all large charities are bad. We're just saying that we need to look at it from the aspect of their waste and cost because again, if they're having to pay for those advertisements or there's a lot more administrators within the structure of it, then that just means less of your actual dollar that you donate is actually going to the cause you want to have. And there could be a lot of local ones maybe that are doing the same cause, and the higher percentage of that dollar is you know reached towards that goal. So we're just gonna look over time look and compare and see, and maybe hopefully some of those big national ones will start taking notice of this and streamline their operation so that more of the actual money being donated goes to the cause rather than it going to advertising on you know big scale and big commercials and and also paying you know your CEOs and CFOs and things along those lines, because just because it says not-for-profit doesn't mean they aren't paying large salaries.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Oh, correct, absolutely. And I think like what you just said is looking into also the local charities as well that are doing the same thing, but all of your money is going to that charity versus if you choose one of these bigger corporations and hopes that all of that money is going there, most likely not. Like you said, we would not all of them are that way necessarily, but we're here to find out how to maximize those donations.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah, and so again, as we move forward, we're gonna start comparing each one individually and kind of give a little grading scale on that. And we're gonna go further into what what that grading scale and what we're looking at, that criteria going forward.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

All right, so let's look at it. All right, so first we're gonna talk about so why do people don't research this themselves more often?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Yeah, and a lot of times when people give, they give because of emotion, you know, whether it's through a an advertisement or commercial or a social media post. I'm sure we've all seen the Sarah McLaughlin uh puppy uh you know, the arms of an angel uh one. Like that that definitely made me reach for my phone in my wallet and everything, and my wife definitely for sure. Uh, but you know, not giving out emotion is not a bad thing and everything, but we still just want to make sure that the cause is important, or also a lot of times with it, people then won't won't give because they are here the bad things. Like you know, they've seen social media posts of like, you know, this charity didn't do XYZ, or this charity took the money and ran. And because of it, now you have the opposite emotional reaction of cutting off the financial strings entirely.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Right. And that's why it's important to go ahead and do the research yourself and look into these different companies and ones that you feel you are emotionally attached to, because there is nothing wrong with having the emotion in it. You just want to make sure that it's not going to be wasted with your donation time or resources.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah. So we're gonna be going through kind of trying to vet these different uh charities and organizations for both your time and money and uh seeing which actually you know is delivering what they promise on. And from that, you know, we will, you know, you'll still be able to have the emotional pool, but like from that, you'll actually have the benefit of knowing that it's actually going to something that actually will deliver on what the promise is. Exactly. So now we're gonna kind of go into the framework of what we're gonna look at and the different criteria from from that of you know how we're gonna rank these.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

All right.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So instead of just complaining about the problem, we want to set up a framework that we can all use. We're going to be doing a scale of one to 10 and finding out what our ratings are. This is new for us as well, and you'll be finding it out with us as we go along. But we're going to start rating the different charities, and especially the popular ones versus more local ones as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah. So again, we're going to do this 10-point scale for each of our categories. We're going to have four categories we're going to go through. And then from that grade of zero to 40, we're going to be able to see where where did they rank at. And uh then you can actually see hopefully where your dollars and time and everything actually benefit from. And the first area is going to be the to me, the most important is transparency. Yeah. Because if you don't know where the money's going, then you don't know where the benefit's actually outcoming. And right there, it's already kind of a failing grade in that sense. But we want to see are they posting their financial reports? Are they posting the outcome of what they have actually accomplished? Are they posting their goals and everything for the future of where your money when you're donating to will actually be actually used? And having that transparency is key because without that knowledge, how can you even begin the grade them on a zero to 10 scale just from that portion to even get to that 40-point uh grade that we're hoping to get to?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

The second is the percentage to the cause. We want to look at how much of our dollar is going to the mission. A lot of these companies, they're only giving pennies on the dollar donations. And we want to look at is there different ones that give more out of your donation or keep more?

unknown 7:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

And the third is going to be the real world impact because again, if you're given the money and it's not going to actually do something, then what's the point in the in the process? You know, is it actually fixing, you know, the housing problem, you know, homeless crisis, you know, uh world hunger, things along those lines? We want to make sure that the money actually is creating an actual impact to the problem, not just you know, nice stories that they're creating along the way.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

No, exactly. And the last thing we want to look at is going to be the local versus national companies for these charitable donations. Because a lot of times, like we kind of touched on before, the local ones will give more of your donation, if not all of your donation, to the cause and the things that they are supporting and building versus these bigger companies. It's either you go into advertisement or people on the board. You know, you got to pay salaries and stuff. And we understand that. But at the same time, if we're giving something, especially if you have that emotional attachment to it, you want to be able to believe in your money going to the right places.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Yeah. So again, off that 40-point scale, when you start seeing scores of 30, 35, close to 40, hopefully, you'll see and know with confidence that your money and time can be donated to it to an actual cause that actually makes that impact. And if it's, you know, 20 and below, then maybe we start to see, you know, maybe this isn't a charity that I should put my efforts in and into. And, you know, that's what we're going to hopefully address. And also maybe some of these charities will then be able to take a look at themselves and realize, like, oh wait, you know, charity A and charity B are going for the same thing, but I have a grade of 20 or below, and this one has a grade of 35. Then maybe what do I need to change to be on par with that other charity? So hopefully those are other things because I do believe that a lot of these charities have the nice intent of what they want to do. It's just maybe they've lost uh their visual on the way or got too big and and what can be done to help fix that and everything. So hopefully that 40-point scale will help give that uh exact transparency of knowing what it is of what you should be donating to.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah, so one of the things also we want to explore now is that that money isn't the only way to give.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Yeah, and donating your time and skills that you might have create more of a value sometimes than just writing a check.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, especially at the local level where that time and involvement can actually make a bigger impact, whether it's you know, donating time to your local soup kitchen or you know, helping build a house for Habitat for your humanity, or as you mentioned, any other skills. Like a lot of times, even if you're like a CPA, you can donate your time to help do tax preparation for those that maybe don't understand how the heck to get through the tax code and everything and don't have the money to pay a fancy CPA and everything. So there's lots of ways to donate those skills uh on a you know on a local level to make that impact.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yeah, and that's something we don't talk about enough is the strategic and volunteering. If you can't have that amount of money to donate, then time and skills is just as important.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, and then again, even if you have the money to uh to donate, volunteering still is a major impact. It helps, I I feel like it also helps build character. It's a great way also to do uh family bonding with your kids and uh you know friends and everything. Uh, I have a local charity uh called Clean the World that I'm a big fan of, and I've gone a lot of times helping uh you know sort the soap and things they have uh left over from uh hotel use because uh helps out people that don't have the ability to get you know cleanly products and everything to help uh especially in third world countries and everything, because that washing your hands definitely helps limit the spread of disease and everything. So you know, things on those lines, you know, donating that time can make a bigger impact, especially at the local level, than you know, just writing a check a lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

So exactly. It's huge.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

But again, we'll still also explore is you know, donating that time, does it still make the impact that we want it to? Uh, because again, a lot of the charities that you donate your time to still take money and you know is the money being used wisely. But at least a lot of times when you donate your time, you're seeing a direct impact, which is definitely can help out on that 40-point scale because it's not just writing a check and hoping the money goes where it wants to go. If you're donating your time in a soup kitchen or help build a house, you know at the end of the day the house is at least a little closer to being built. You know, at least you helped see a couple homeless people or people in need, you know, like get get food, or you actually saw them get clothing and things. You know, if you're a hairstylist, maybe help them get a you know, haircut and things that you help them get benefited, get out and get a job, uh, you know, potentially potentially you know help get on the better track for life. So you see that impact directly and more efficiently than you would maybe just by writing a check.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Well, right. And this is where the the emotional impact comes in too, because these things that you have emotional ties to in some of these different charities, if you're physically there donating your time and like anything you have to offer, you're physically seeing that fulfillment the day of. You know, it's not just like writing a check and then just, you know, one day flipping through and be like, oh, that charity did something great. Yeah. But it definitely you can see the immediate impact that you're making.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah, and also a lot of times if you're donating a time, odds are you're also meeting the people that are running the different charities. Uh, even if they're just at the local level running it, you can still meet those people and actually get to know them on a personal level, and you can kind of do your own personal self-vetting. Like, you know, is this person actually you know a good person running for a good cause? You know, and that that can be a big thing because, you know, not just from the financial side of it, but also looking at like if the person's a jerk, maybe I don't want to volunteer for that organization or give them money in the future. But right, you know, getting to know them and realize like, wow, they have they are very passionate about this or have you know a big mission they're trying to do, and uh, you know, you then want to follow them, help them out more to help them reach their goal. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so again, uh, you know, time just as important, if not more important a lot of times, than money, and at least again, helping a more streamlined way of knowing if it's making a change or not.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

So all right. Well, let's move on to the next section.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah. So to kind of pull everything back together, again, you know, with this fits into buy your kids a house philosophy. This you know directly ties into it because it's about setting up all of us for a better future, and that includes fixing the future.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

No, exactly, because fixing the future isn't just about your household, it's about the system your kids grow up in and that community.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah. So again, we're trying to build that community together, build a stronger future, help us all out, and creating those, you know, fixing those problems down the road so that we all have a better future to look forward to.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, and it's just like investing, it's we're not doing it for that immediate gratitude. We're doing it to help build those communities up and have a long-lasting uh environment for our kids to grow up in that's positive and helpful.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, and and again, if we can solve some of these problems along the way, then even better and at least make an impact towards some of those problems and help make things easier on people in need, people that need a little help, a little handout, a little pick-me-up, people facing bigger struggles. I mean, as I'm wearing a kick kids cancer uh, you know, shirt, you know, like there's a lot that has to be with medical research charities to help out, you know, like where can we help to fix those things to help uh you know eliminate some of those uh problems down the road so the families don't have to face these major problems. So, you know, again, that's all part of the building kids' house for the future because we're trying to get to that point where we all are have a you know much, much bright, brighter future.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yeah, and we don't want it just for ourselves either. We want it for all of you as well. We want to be able to see those communities build and come closer together and become stronger to have that positive environment.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, so that's what we're gonna try to do to get to there. And I think again, along that path, you know, again, if there's any charities you recommend that we look into, you know, please put those in the comments below because again, I have a list of ideas where we're gonna start with this process, but there are so many out there, and I don't want to miss any. If there's something you're passionate about, maybe if you're the leader of a local charity and everything, uh especially in the Orlando area, because you know, a local charity in uh in uh in Iowa might be a little tempting for us to get to. I'm not saying we won't hear you out, but if you're in the Central Florida area and would like us to come, you know, donate our time, we're more than happy to come uh set things up to help out, bring it, bring light and attention to your charity. Please put that in a comment. Or if you know someone, help put us in contact with them. Uh because again, we're gonna try to start exploring these, you know, one by one. Uh, we're gonna go through these different charities, uh, locally, nationally, and everything and trying to help figure out what path it is we need to get to get to the point of fixing this and uh helping everything out. So, you know, again, put those in the comments, like, share, subscribe, share it around. Because if we can help all help pull our community of dollars together to help these charities out or help donate our time as well, then that's gonna be a great outcome, I think, of this.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Absolutely. And like you said before, it helps building character as well and getting the family involved. What a great way to come together to spend time as a family while building that character for everyone, not even just the kids.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Well, again, and and and you know, especially being a parent with kids and everything, it's definitely could be a humbling experience and everything when you're, you know, a lot of times your kids don't realize how spoiled and privileged they are. I keep trying to tell my kids all the time, like you don't realize how lucky you have it being in, you know, Central Florida with all this at your fingertips. And you know, they don't go to bed hungry, and there's a lot of kids that do. You know, they have a roof over the head, there's a lot of kids that don't. Uh, you know, there's a lot of times where your mom and dad are struggling to find a job and everything. There's a lot of times uh also when they hit those medical needs, as I mentioned, the cancer and everything, like they don't see a day-to-day how how lucky they are, and taking them to see and help out and everything that process could definitely help to uh open their eyes of uh how fortunate they are and how we can get back to that.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

No, absolutely. And like you said though, helping us build this community as well. So like, comment, share, subscribe, put in the comments of, like you said, your favorite charities, ones that we don't even know about, the local ones, the bigger ones. We're gonna be looking at a lot of different ones and starting this rating system as well to be able to see which one benefits your time, skills, and money the most.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Absolutely. And if you have unique skills, uh, you know, I briefly mentioned a little about you know CPA, hairstylists, things along those lines, please put those in the comments uh and everything because maybe there's a lot of skills I'm sure that I'm not even thinking of at the moment. Oh, yeah, that charities that everything could definitely be in need, obviously, you know, carpenters, you know, electricians, things along those lines. Like so, if there's something in there and you want to help out, we can then help you get in contact with the charity that can use your skills and help out in that process too. Absolutely. So until next episode, thank you for joining us on this journey. You know, we look forward to the how the future has to offer. Yeah, absolutely. Till next time.