How To Make Sure Your Donations Go Where You Intend Them To
In the wake of the devasting earthquake that occurred in Turkey and Syria, donations have been pouring in, but if you want to do your part, some of the best strategies to make sure your money gets to the right place include researching organizations, avoiding unestablished charities, and making sure that the charity you donate to has the resources to reach the impacted area.
After Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Syria and Turkey, over five thousand are dead and more than one hundred thousand have been left homeless. Much of the countries’ infrastructures have been destroyed, and local governments are struggling to pick up the pieces. Aid organizations have rushed to help those impacted, and people around the globe are eager to donate to the cause. Here’s how to make sure that your donations have the biggest impact for those in need.
According to NPR, it’s important to do your due diligence before donating to any humanitarian aid organizations. While you should try to donate as soon as possible to make the biggest impact, you don’t want to donate to a new charity; opt for one with an established track record of responding well to crises and disasters. Charity Navigator, CharityWatch, and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy are all great sources to discover which aid organizations are reputable.
But reputability isn’t the only criterion to look for; you’ll want to make sure that the organization is able to respond to this particular emergency. Not all aid organizations are equipped to handle the same situations, which is a strength rather than a weakness—organizations that have specialties are better able to respond when that specific disaster strikes. If possible, donate to a local organization or one that already has an established presence in the affected community, rather than one swooping in that may not be aware of the community’s needs.
Always make sure you get a receipt for your donation for tax purposes. If the organization doesn’t provide a receipt, it might be a scam, so be vigilant when donating and beware especially of requests to send money to a personal bank account, websites that seem less than professional, or organizations that aren’t transparent about their spending. You want your donation to do the most good and go as far as possible, and an abundance of caution and research before donating can ensure that it does.
You might be tempted to donate to a specific kind of aid or donate physical items instead of money—don’t! The best way to help is to give money and to give it to organizations doing broad work. This allows aid organizations to meet the evolving needs of the affected communities without the red tape of sorting through specific donations or items. While directed donations are helpful in a broader sense, they often present more problems than solutions in a humanitarian disaster.
While the Syrian and Turkish earthquake crisis will be a part of our news cycle for a while, it will likely fade long before the effects of the disaster do. To make sure your donation has the biggest impact over the longest period of time, give to an organization that will be there for the long haul. Recovery from a humanitarian disaster like this takes years, as evidenced by other disasters such as the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005; these guidelines can help ensure that your donation is helpful for the duration of Turkey and Syria’s recoveries.
