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♥ Helping Charitable Causes through Institutions or own Channel By Mercy Mukosha  There are two ways to support humanitarian, charitable, and social justice causes:
1) By helping through established formal institutions, and
2) By helping through your own established channels.
1. By helping through established formal institutions: Established formal institutions in charitable causes include government registered orphanages, schools, health institutions, institutions for the handicapped, and so on. Helping such institutions is the easiest way in supporting charitable causes. Already established formal institutions facilitate your support for good causes through all their formal means of helping. All you have to do is be able to provide what you desire to give and what they’re able to receive. Your help can be in any category of need that you can assist in. These include any combination of the following:
a) Financial assistance;
b) Material support (gifts in kind);
c) Administrative and technical support (including volunteer work);
d) Spiritual support (e.g. prayers, fasting, etc.);
e) Social support (spreading the word on worthy charitable causes).. The most important puzzle that you’ll face with formal institutions is their level of accountability - if your support is long-term based and you care enough to know how your input is benefiting those being served. The top leadership of most formal institutions determines the level of accountability. Thus it’s worthwhile to start from the top leadership to see how burdened they really are in serving those in need or maybe it’s just a job to earn a living. The following concerns are easier to verify with smaller charities than with the gigantic ones:
♥ What sacrifices are they making on their part?
♥ How close are they with those served (in insuring their social & overall basic needs are met)?
♥ Do they have an open book accounting system for donors to see how funds are utilized?
♥ How do they handle money - spending, budgeting, prioritizing, etc. In making your evaluation aim for “acceptable” rather than “perfect.” People are people -are you perfect? Organizations operate just like social relationships. Every one of them is a combination of strengths and weaknesses. Thus administrators from one institution may have great strengths in so many areas yet have a concerning weakness in one area or two. That ought not be a quitting sign. Otherwise you’ll be looking for a perfect institution all your life. Just define what you can tolerate and live with - for as long as you’ll be supporting charitable causes through established formal institutions. May God bless you!! 2. By helping through your own established channels: This method is more involving in terms of time and general personal input. However you’d be able to eliminate potential disappointments that you may encounter with some charity institutions. These include misuse of funds by charity administrators, lack of communication on how funds are being utilized, little to no access to actual recipients when needed, and so on.
Some disappointments can make some people quit all their humanitarian endeavors altogether. But this need not be the case. There are always alternatives to make a difference – like looking for a more reputable charity or helping through your own established channels.
Needless to say that helping through your own established channels can have potential disappointments that you could encounter. This time it’s not the middle persons (administrators) but can come from the recipients themselves. A major one is that recipients sometimes taking advantage of a donor’s efforts by adding more needs to their list. It also includes falsifying of critical needs in order to use funds on luxurious wants. Another is falling back into a dependency syndrome.
However if you keep account of your help you can actually measure your efforts, ensure your recipients are on a timetable of making progress by giving appropriate yardsticks, expected results, approximate time of your ability to support, spiritual mentoring in emphasizing that your material support is faith-based to ensure that God is the focus as the ultimate deliverer (with all hope, honor and glory due unto him), etc, etc.
Your help can be in any category of need that you can assist in. Just like the above the needs include any combination of the following:
a) Financial assistance;
b) Material support (gifts in kind);
c) Administrative and technical support (including volunteer work);
d) Spiritual support (e.g. prayers, fasting, etc.);
e) Social support (spreading the word on worthy charitable causes). Jodie Brown has more tips from her own years of experience supporting charitable causes through self established channels. Click here to read Jodie Brown’s account. May God bless you!!
More Info for Your Charity Support:
♥List of Zimbabwe Charities ♥Tips on Supporting Charities ♥AIDS Effects ♥Orphan Crisis Solutions
♥Useful Info on Charities ♥Charity Quotations ♥Mother Teresa ♥Multimedia ♥Charity News | 
