Today I’m responding to some of the comments I received on my original child survival post (with thanks to all of you who commented). A number of commenters want to get involved and help. We always love to hear that. A few, like Shahidha, worry they don’t have a lot to give financially. The truth is, there are many ways to help besides money. We’d be lost without our volunteers. If you are interested in giving your time, go to our volunteer page for a soup-to-nuts explanation of how you can join. If you can’t volunteer your time, there’s an even easier way to help–just talk about us. Tell your family/friends/coworkers about UNICEF and the child survival movement. The more people feel engaged in our work, the more likely they are to donate or get involved themselves in the future.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ99-0573/Radhika Chalasani |
Also in regards to giving: even if you have very little to spare, you’d be amazed what that ‘little’ can do. For instance (as you can see on our Inspired Gifts page), a $23 donation pays for enough measles vaccine to give 50 children the two doses needed to keep them from getting this very deadly disease. $23! Not bad.
Elyse Cohen is a teacher interested in helping. I still remember learning about UNICEF in school when I was a kid – in fact, it’s probably a big part of the reason I work here now. And I definitely remember trick-or-treating with my UNICEF box, listening to that “girump-girump-grump” percussion noise of nickels, quarters & dimes, and feeling glad–even at that age–that Halloween had a purpose beyond candy (though, believe me, I am not dissing candy). So, Elyse, I strongly encourage you to talk to your students about UNICEF and child survival issues. We make free resources available to teachers–you can find out everything you need to know at teachunicef.org.
Commenter Siddant is (as he describes) “another of those Corporate IT guys” who’s dispirited by his work. Siddant, nonprofit organizations also need IT people (we’re lucky enough to have a great team here). You should consider finding a job you feel good about. You can look for UNICEF jobs here. And there’s a really great website–idealist.org–which lists thousand of nonprofit jobs around the country. It’s also an excellent place to find other like-minded people.
Finally (for today, at least) Commenter Michael Couch wrote to say he stopped giving money to nonprofit organizations because he got so frustrated with the number of follow-up letters he received. I decided to ask someone in our direct marketing department how those mailings worked, and whether they did, indeed, waste money. Coordinator of Direct Marketing, Clare Micuda-Swain, explained to me that the U.S. Fund for UNICEF actually spends very little money on these letters–they’re just not very expensive. And they work. We’re able to raise more money through these mailings than through any other means. But the best way to be reassured that the money you donate goes to helping children (rather than just raising more money) is to look at our ratings page on Charity Navigator. We have a 4-star rating (the highest) and their research shows that, for every dollar we raise, we only spend $.07 on fundraising. It’s a really excellent ratio in the nonprofit world. However, it’s totally understandable that some of you wouldn’t want to receive frequent mailings from us. All you need to do is call us at 1.800.4UNICEF and let us know.
Next time I’ll address a few comments I didn’t get to this week. And, as always, we want to hear from you. Do you volunteer for any organizations? Do you think about it? Let us know.