CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, is interviewed by Brandis Friedman on WTTW's Chicago Tonight program alongside Patrick Rooney, a professor of economics and philanthropic studies at Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy; and Angela Lee, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business.
"When people are more cautiously generous, they feel more confident and comfortable giving to charities that they have been supporting," said Lee.
"Rooney says it's too soon to say how 2022 will shake out given the current economic climate," but that "charitable donations tend to move in the general direction of the economy." "They're a little pro-cyclic, that is that they move in the same direction but in a more advance[d] manner such that in good years philanthropy is very good, and in bad years it's worse than the economy overall," according to Rooney.
"Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, says there are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States and doing a deep dive into all of them can be time consuming. When it comes to deciding if your charity of choice is spending your donation wisely, she has a few tips to follow. 'Understand that there is a difference between legitimate and efficient. Legitimate just means that it's registered with the IRS and state agencies to be able to solicit and to exist. It doesn't mean that it will use your donation efficiently and effectively,' Styron said."
Read the complete article and watch the video, below, [starting at marker 20:05].