FOCUS: Why you should give on Lowcountry Giving Day

By George C. Stevens | The main reason to give to your favorite charity tomorrow is that they do good work, needed work, work that improves society.  Giving tomorrow, May 5, is especially beneficial as dozens of good citizens have pooled their funds and given Coastal Community Foundation $3 million to dole out based on your choices.  Those incentivizing donors are letting you decide where their money goes.  Who doesn’t want to give like a millionaire, even if only for a single day?

Stevens

Setting aside those obvious reasons, the not-so-obvious ones reveal something deeply good about America.

In America, we encourage re-invention, innovation and change.  When teaching in Europe several years ago, I encouraged my students to challenge the status quo and ask for change.  They looked at me like I was Paul Revere.  It was a deeply Americanizing experience.

The juggernaut that is the Internet (first disrupting the music industry, then travel, then taxis…) has taken aim at charitable giving.  My European friends would be traumatized.  My American colleagues find it exhilarating (but not without fear).

Online has risen by 4.9 percent in the last year across this great, innovative nation, according to Blackbaud’s Charitable Giving Report.  Lowcountry nonprofits are adopting these new tools.  Before they tried it, a few vocal donors balked at the idea of giving large gifts online.  Last year changed their minds.  In 2014, we saw a credit card gift of $50,000 on the www.lowcountrygivingday.org website.  Twenty-nine gifts of more than $10,000 were received online via credit cards.  In total, 7,166 gifts were made.  The average gift last year was $372.62.  So, your gift tomorrow accelerates the adoption of new, and no doubt inevitable changes in how nonprofits raise money.  Innovation is the American way.

Our drive toward continuous improvement and measurement (electronic pedometers anyone?) is also an American ideal.  Nonprofits that move a portion of their fundraising online raise money at lower cost than those organizations that still rely on printed mailings, bake sales, and special events.  More efficient charities spend more of your gift on your desired outcomes.  The efficiency of giving on May 5 is more than twice as good as typical fundraising efforts.  Gifts made during Lowcountry Giving Day earn the incentives mentioned earlier, while paying future dividends.

Not-So-Obvious-Reason Three: Measuring the effectiveness of nonprofits is difficult.  There are many measures of success, some specific to specific organizations.  When considering a broad swath of the nonprofit sector (as we are during on May 5) perhaps the most robust measures are these: “How many donors does the organization have?” and “Do I know any of them?” Each donor has their own reasons for giving.   Together they are like so many different “camera angles” on the organization.  If someone you know is giving to an organization it is a good indication you should too.  Watch your favorite social media feeds and see where people give.  Those who give tomorrow are encouraged to tweet or post status updates about it.  Watch the play-by-play on the leaderboard at www.lowcountrygivingday/leaderboard and adjust your giving accordingly.

And the final not-so-obvious reason is that charitable giving is an exercise of self-governance. It is a responsibility we Americans have that is envied around the world.  Like voting, charitable giving shapes our society and gives voice to our concerns, but unlike voting, it is freed from direct governmental involvement. A charitable gift redirects a portion of your tax dollars to your local community and shapes that community by the nonprofits you support.  Charitable giving is a freedom that needs to be exercised and embraced to be effective.

So during Lowcountry Giving Day, tomorrow May 5, give early and give often. Doing so will make the Lowcountry a better place.

George Stevens is the former president and CEO of Coastal Community Foundation.