Charity Banners

Any organization requires a mission statement. A mission statement provides its readers a brief outlook on what the organization does and how they are going to do it. Therefore a mission statement can be extremely important for a small charity. Here’s why:

It guides charity leaders when making key decisions. Many charities start projects that may not exactly suit the cause they hope to uphold. A clear mission allows the leadership to differentiate between the programs that require attention and those that don’t. A clear mission also provides a road map for employees of the charity and it’s volunteers. The mission tells the charity’s stakeholders how it intends to operate and what goals it hopes to achieve. This will provide the volunteers and employees a sense of purpose and they will know the end result they are working toward. A clear and concise mission statement isn’t just about internal stakeholders. It will suggest to external stakeholders what to expect from the organization. Also, one of the most important reasons to have a mission statement is so that donor’s have a bird’s eye view of your charity and they know what you do from the onset. Having a clear mission statement paints an accurate and powerful image of what your work is about and how you plan to change the environment and fill a certain need.

A mission statement isn’t always a bunch of words on a wall. On the contrary, it usually has deep meaning and can be a useful tool, especially for a small charity.

Barbara Streisand, the actress, the one we all love, has decided to get rid of her “stuff.” But she doesn’t plan to get rid of it the usual way (really, could you see Barbara Streisand having a garage sale). Actually she plans on having an auction in which she will auction some of her collectibles. Among the many items that are to be auctioned off will be costumes she wore in Funny Lady, and in Meet the Fockers.

The items to be sold are largely diverse, and may be something as simple as a wicker chair she had in her sun room, to a pair of trousers she liked back in 1986, there is even a record player she bought at the age of 18. The items are to go on show in Newbridge, Co Kildare, and Ireland in September and then sold in New York October 17th and 18th.

Streisand has donated the proceeds of over 400 items to the Streisand Foundation, whisch supports various children’s, women’s, political and environmental issues. These items come form her home in Malibu, New York and Beverly hills, and are being sold because she is tired of having the extra stuff hanging around. In her own words she says “I am a collector, but I can’t just keep collecting everything and there is no sense in keeping it in storage.” She believes others can better benefit from the sale of these items. She says, “it is just a good time to clean out the closets.”

The news is out that Prince Harry and British pop singer, Natasha Bedingfield have been secretly putting together plans for a concert to raise money to benefit the African charities that they are both involved with. It has been said that the two have been secretly working on the project for several months. Although all the details aren’t known at this time, it has been reported that the flagship concert will kick off in 2010 and will be televised around the world. The concert will also be in the style of Live-Aid.

This however will not be the first time that Prince Harry and Natasha Bedingfield have teamed together for a concert. The two joined forces two years ago when Bedingfield sang at Princess Diana’s memorial concert that commemorated the 10th anniversary of her death. Princess Diana was of course the mother of Prince Harry.

The charities that will benefit from the 2010 Live-Aid styled concert are Prince Harry’s “Sentebale” charity, which supports orphans in Lesotho, a tiny nation surrounded by South Africa and “Global Angels”, which is an international children’s charity ran by Natasha’s mother, Molly Bedingfield, and of which Natasha is an ambassador. Molly Bedingfield, Prince Harry and his team have had several meetings about the televised concert and they are also hoping to sell thounsands of tickets to music fans. Concerts for charity have always done well and judging by the histroy of Live-Aid type concerts, this 2010 concert stands to do very well and raise a lot of money.

While the Cash for Clunkers program has been receiving a great deal of positive press in recent weeks due to the huge jump in car sales that the incentive program inspired, few have considered how this program has negatively impacted many of the nation’s nonprofit charities. For the past decade, nonprofit organizations have been relying on the donation of used cars that were on their last legs to various agencies as a means of generating much needed fundraising revenue. These agencies ranged from local public media programs such as the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio to community organizations such as Goodwill and religious charities.

Previous to Cash for Clunkers, citizens were often more than happy to donate their used vehicles to these nonprofit agencies in exchange for a break on their federal income taxes. However, the financial incentives offered by Cash for Clunkers for outweigh the incentives offered by the tax write-off, so many consumers are opting to upgrade their existing used vehicle for a more fuel efficient vehicle for the Clunkers money instead of donating the vehicle to charity. While the Cash for Clunkers is definitely having an effect on the charities that were relying on these donations, it’s also worth remembering that our economy has reached the point that only an economic recovery will allow most citizens to resume actively making substantial donations to charity. Cash for Clunkers may have hurt these charities in the short term, but most of us hope that it is measures such as Clunkers that will provide the shot in the arm that our economy so desperately needs.

Some of the best known charitable organizations such as Planned Parenthood and other groups like the United Way are likely to get a shot in the arm through the funding of appropriations process in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. Planned Parenthood offers reproductive health services to many poor women both in the United States and around the world. The United Way on the other hand has been a key leader in building wheelchair ramps, new homes for the downtrodden and even returning veterans who are injured in a combat. The United Way has had a key relationship with professional groups such as the National Football League to remind kids of the importance of volunteering within their communities.

If you look at organizations like Charity Navigator they contend that funding generally has decreased over the last few years to help non-profit organizations. There may be evidence that there was a cut in the rate of increase to non-profit groups, but no actual cut in the rate of funding.

The faith based community has been key over the last decade in providing charitable services. President Obama has proposed an expansion of former President Bush’s faith based community outreach programs. Obama plans to increase the funding for the program by ten billion dollars. This news please people like Reverend Jim Wallis who is deeply involved in a lot of non-profit activity through his group Sojourners. Groups like the Children’s Defense Fund under Marian Wright Edelman are also likely to see an increase in federal dollars coming to their coffers. The Children’s Defense Fund will be key in showing the ropes to some of these faiths based organizations on how to better teach our children.