October 6, 2014;USA Today
Breast Cancer Awareness Month has become quite the cause marketing craze, with pink ribbons covering every product in stores from sunglasses to soda bottles. Putting aside concerns about the odd dynamics caused by an obsessive focus on one disease over another, many people want to donate to the cause during October, but don’t necessarily want to research where to make the gift, according to this survey of donors from Hope Consulting. Are there any guidelines that might help determine how and where to give? Here are some that we have compiled.
If you truly want to see your money go towards advancing breast cancer research, be wary of cause marketing campaigns from retail stores. There are now endless opportunities to purchase products that claim to benefit charity. But some of these products sporting pink ribbons don’t even raise a dime for cancer research. Even if the company states it is giving a portion of the proceeds to a breast cancer charity, investigating the specific charity your money will be going to and whether they are reputable is recommended as well. The advocacy group Breast Cancer for Action created the Think Before You Pink project due to the growing number of pink ribbon products, encouraging individuals to ask critical questions before deciding to give.
So now, the question remains—where should a donor give? Although we do not always concur with Charity Navigator, it has provided a thorough list of breast cancer charities in order of their rating and evaluation from the charity watchdog itself. The data below from the top ten charities listed should be helpful for making informed decisions on where to put your charitable money this month:
|
Charity |
Overall Rating (Score out of 100) |
Accountability & Transparency Rating (Score out of 100) |
Program Expenses (Percent of budget spent on the programs and services it delivers) |
|
98.84 |
100.00 |
83.6% |
|
|
98.76 |
100.00 |
82.6% |
|
|
97.60 |
100.00 |
91.1% |
|
|
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100.00 |
82.4% |
|
|
95.42 |
100.00 |
87.5% |
|
|
94.93 |
93.00 |
84.6% |
|
|
94.24 |
96.00 |
79.1% |
|
|
93.67 |
100.00 |
84.4% |
|
|
91.63 |
93.00 |
92.4% |
|
|
87.59 |
88.00 |
82.1% |
—Aine Creedon
