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I heard Christine Benz talk about this initiative (details at https://boglecenter.net/gettinggoing/) in which young adults (particularly from low income backgrounds) are given $1000 for a Roth IRA.
I started to donate, and then the ‘mind chatter’ started- is this the best way to help? how will they track whether this approach actually helps young people to become better savers and investors?, etc. ( I’m sure I’m not the only person here with many voices in our heads chiming in on financial decisions.) I donated to the Initiative and hope it will prove useful and life-changing in many ways. But my final reasons for donating were: I have benefitted greatly from Jonathan Clements’ writings. If he thinks this is a worthy effort to try, then I want to support it out of gratitude and respect. And I’ll pay attention to what happens, and make further donations based on what is learned from this effort.
I find making donations to charitable efforts challenging. Charity Navigator is one tool that helps, but I also support some smaller organizations that are still in the ‘start up’ phase and don’t (yet) have good track records and are still working out metrics to evaluate effectiveness. I would be curious to know how others make charitable donation decisions and what they’ve learned in this area (including how to work with mind chatter!).
We give the majority of our donations to the food pantry in our town. As the saying goes charity begins at home(town).
Good question Sheila,
There are a variety of reasons I pick a charity.
I gift to NPR because I tune in every day so it seems like I should help with funding.
I gift to the USO in order to help those who have served the country.
St. Judes Children’s Hospital for the incredible commitment to kid’s health. Its founder is Toledo native Danny Thomas, (Amos Jacobs). My dad casually knew Danny, I casually knew his brother, and my Chrissy is part of the Jacobs clan.
I make a monthly donation to my political party. I know it’s not charity, but it’s a way to participate in addition to voting.
My high school alma mater. It’s an urban Catholic school that gives scholarships to lots of city kids who would not be able to afford the school without it.
Food banks just because.
Girl Scout cookies because of those Thin Mints😁
Good questions. I do sometimes donate because I know and respect the person(s) behind an initiative, and this one honoring Jonathan is a good example of that. One of my former colleagues has a special needs child with a very rare genetic condition, and because of this colleague and his wife, who are wonderful people doing a fabulous job in a very difficult situation, I donate to the foundation doing research on that condition.
Thank you for supporting the initiative!