by Katja Schroeder, Expedition PR
The end of December is crunch time for nonprofit organizations. The Chronicle of Philanthropy together with Network for Good, a platform that helps nonprofits raise funds for their cause online, is tracking online-fundraising totals for more than 14,300 charities by the day. The daily fundraising data is compared to 2011 and 2012.
Not surprisingly, donations steeply increased in the last days of September in 2011 and 2013, with 2013 outranking 2012. The Chronicle’s tracker recorded about US$ 8 million of daily donations on December 31, 2012, a sweet US$2 million increase compared to December 23, 2011 (shortly below US$6 million).
So, if you are among the ones that are planning to give in the next couple of days, here are three of our favorite nonprofits to consider.
DonorsChoose: This is an excellent way to help public schools. Teachers post projects that need support on the site. You can become one of the multiple project donors, or fund an entire project. The site lets you search projects by priority, region and type, among other criteria. So, you can donate to schools that are in your community, or school projects that need help for the type of projects that you support. The process is transparent. You get proof that your donation is going directly towards the project and helping children get a better education. Take a look at funding projects at http://www.donorschoose.org.
S.O.S. Children’s Villages International: Donations go towards child care, education, and health care to children and their families in 133 countries and territories. S.O.S. children’s villages offer a home and family environment to children in need. You can directly sponsor a child’s education or support an entire children’s village. For more information, go to: http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/.
The Lelt Foundation: Started by parents that have adopted children in Ethiopia, this charity gives nutritional and educational support to impoverished children in Ethiopia, and enables their parents to start their own sustainable small businesses. The organization has a matching gift campaign running until December 31. For every dollar you donate, a group of Lelt supporters will match it, up to $15K.. See http://leltfoundation.org/holiday-donations/ for more details.