A little can go a long way

There's an interesting article on the NY Times website posted on May 20th: How to Make Smart Gifts to Charities.

Working in fundraising, I know that a lot of people are pulling back on their donations. I'm doing it myself. There key to reducing your charitable giving, as the article says, is to adopt a sensible strategy. Look at the charities you give to and think about which organizations:

1) need more help at this time - like social services organizations (food banks, affordable housing, shelters, etc) and the other organizations that support them (like People Making a Difference, for example)

2) can make your donation dollar go the farthest - hint: larger organizations are not necessarily better at this than smaller ones.

PMD falls into both these categories. There are more individuals and groups looking to volunteer, but many nonprofits - especially small ones - don't have the infrastructure to handle the load (believe me, sometimes that's what it feels like: a heavy load of eager would-be volunteers).

Not only does PMD provide a tremendous service to charities by organizing groups and projects (a cook-out at Hearth, packaging books at the Prison Book Program, serving meals at Rosie's Place, landscaping at the Franklin Park Zoo, etc...), but PMD is also extremely cost-effective:

In 2008, PMD organized 642 volunteers and completed 63 high-quality projects which helped 40 different charities - with a budget of less than $100,000.

With a budget that lean, any pull-back from funders hurts PMD - and that ripples out to organizations throughout Boston (and a few beyond).

So, if you're wondering how to make your donation bucks go farther: PMD is a pretty good answer.