Tis the season for giving: A guide for how to give, even a little

Christmas is over, but the giving season for nonprofits is just beginning to peak.

The end of the calendar year is a time when nonprofits far and wide make calls to attract donors — partly because of holiday traditions or, for some, tax breaks. According to marketing firm Nonprofits Source, nonprofits receive about 30% of their annual donations in December, with 10% of that coming in the last three days of the year.

“This is one of the busiest times of the year for us as we help donors with their year-end donations,” said Erin Musgrave, spokesperson for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Many potential donors don't realize how much nonprofits appreciate even small gifts, especially local organizations that serve community needs. And nonprofits and industry groups warn that donations are down this year, so giving at this time can go a long way toward helping them.

Only 11% of Americans itemize their taxes, allowing them to claim significant tax deductions for charitable donations. That means most Americans won't give in December for tax reasons.

“They think about the organization in their community that is having an impact and digging deep and giving,” said Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies.

As you view commercial calls and search donation requests, there are some things to keep in mind:

Experienced donors often have a short list of criteria they use to select nonprofits to support. They may be organizations that serve the region where they live or specific causes or issues with which they have a personal connection.

A question you can ask yourself is, “What are the issues or communities that matter to me and where do I want to make a difference?”

A great way to find out about organizations in your area is to ask your friends, coworkers, and neighbors. They may have had direct contact with a nonprofit that supports after-school programs, sends counselors to elderly residents, advocates for traffic safety, or supports local artists. For every topic that is important to you, there is probably an organization working near you.

Another possible consideration is to check if your employer will match donations to the nonprofit you want to support. Then your donation can go even further.

If you're feeling burdened by all the urgent calls everywhere, from the checkout to the mail or online, the best thing you can do is create a budget and set aside time for organizations that matter to you. Be realistic, make a plan and then put the guilt aside.

No, simply put.

First, there is no obligation to give to nonprofits. Many people are making a difference in their communities by donating blood, volunteering as firefighters, caring for neighbors, and in countless other ways.

Second, many nonprofits actually prefer that donors make automatic monthly donations, even in very small amounts, rather than giving a lump sum at the end of the year. The automatic donation from your bank account or credit card means they can plan in advance how to spend that money, often saving money and resources.

Some donors say they want their dollars to go directly to the nonprofit's work and not to rent or salaries. This perennial view of wasteful “overhead” spending has some drawbacks, but to be clear, donors have good reason to carefully evaluate the organizations they support.

But one useful data point comes from the nonprofit rating agencies themselves. Ten years ago, organizations like BBB Wise Giving Alliance and GuideStar, now part of Candid, teamed up to challenge the idea that the best way to measure a nonprofit's value is the portion of money spent on administrative costs and fundraising.

Michael Thatcher, the president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which revised its ratings methodology in September, advises donors to consider the organization's impact and whether it is achieving its mission.

“What does the money do? Not what was the money spent on?,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

People who study philanthropy and advise donors, like Vanessa Lee, a program officer who coordinates giving circles at the Chicago Foundation for Women, emphasize that giving back is not the purview of the ultra-wealthy.

“It's not like you have to have millions of dollars to be a philanthropist,” Lee said. “You can do this for $10 a month.”

In addition, donations from low- and middle-income people who give smaller amounts tend to go directly to nonprofits, unlike many of the wealthiest donors, said Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies. His organization has studied the giving behavior of billionaires and found that a growing share of the total dollars donated each year goes to donor-advised funds and foundations, rather than directly to nonprofits.

In a recent example, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell donated shares worth $1.7 billion to the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and to donor-advised funds for future charitable giving. Private foundations are required to spend at least 5% of their assets annually, but there is no minimum grant requirement for DAFs.

“The very wealthy give it to middlemen they control and park the money indefinitely,” Collins said. “So there is more of a tax benefit goal, while most people give regardless of the tax consequences.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits is supported by the AP's partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.