A Place Called Charity

I went to the drug store last week to pick up a single item. The plan was to get in and out quickly before I picked up my daughter from school. I was a slightly taken aback when I was confronted by a Salvation Army holiday ringer. Already? It was seven weeks before Christmas.

This isn't a popular thing to say but, I don't like the Salvation Army's annual fund raiser. I have always been somewhat annoyed by the constant ringing and "God bless yous" during the Christmas season. But it wasn't until this year's early interaction with the annual fund raiser, that I realized that I am actually resentful of the event.

Between now and December 24, one cannot enter any grocery store, department store, home improvements store, or any big box store without feeling a little guilty for not dropping at least one's pocket change into the red kettle. I wonder how many times the average person passes a ringer during a season? Fifty, one hundred times? At a dollar a pop, that's not pocket change.

When volunteers are not available, temporary workers are employed. I sometimes get the impression that the ringers are more in need of a donation than the organization they are working for. Last year I followed a suggestion from a sibling and donated money directly to the ringer. I told him I wanted to buy his lunch.

The Salvation Army's 2009 Red Kettle Christmas Campaign officially kicks off November 20. It is the oldest annual charitable fund raiser of its kind in the United States. This year's goal is $120,000,000. That's a lot of loose change. This multi-billion charitable organization, is one of the world's largest provider of social aid. I don't doubt that they do a lot of good.

But what if the American Red Cross or the Children's Defense Fund or Habitat for Humanity wanted to set up donation tables during Christmas? Where is it written that the Salvation Army has the monopoly during December?

As Americans, we give more than any other country in the world to charitable organizations. Last year, Americans generously gave over 300 billion. Non-profits, like the Salvation Army, are not required to report their ledger sheets to the Internal Revenue Service.

Charity Navigator, founded in 2001, is now the largest and most utilized evaluator of charities. However, Charity Navigator cannot evaluate the financial health of one-third of U.S. charities because these organizations do not provide financial data to the IRS. In 2008, that equated to $100 billion of charitable donations! In our current economy, I want to know if my family's hard-earned donations are being spent wisely.

At the holiday season, we always retrieve angels from the “giving tree” at church to provide needed clothing and toys for a local charity. During the year we purchase food for the church food pantry. Every month, the children's Sunday school classes designate a different mission project for charity. So I, too, consider my family charitable.

But we make conscious decisions about how and when we donate to the organizations that we support. I want to give freely and with an open heart, not because someone is prodding me every time I run in the grocery store for a head of lettuce.

I am reminded of a conversation last December. Over the years, my daughter has frequently heard me say, “These items are going to charity for those in need.” On the way to school, she asks, “Mom, where exactly is this place called Charity that we send items?!”

No, child, “charity” is not the name of a town. But it does come in many forms, not just in the shape of a little red kettle.