Real Simple recently published an article about What to Consider When Making Charitable Donations. The author, Bonnie Tsui, mentions five points to consider as you vet charities during this season of giving:

  1. Make sure that you understand the charity’s mission
  2. Verify the group’s nonprofit status
  3. Inquire about the charity’s spending ratio
  4. Look for accountability and transparency practices
  5. Ask about results

At The American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA), we decided to make it simple for you by sharing what AFCA does in each of these areas.

  1. Our Mission: AFCA is a non-profit organization providing critical support to infected and affected HIV+ children and their caregivers. Since 2005, in collaboration with our in-country partners, we have served tens of thousands of families in underserved and marginalized communities in Africa.  Our areas of impact include: medical support, livelihoods, nutrition, educational support and emergency relief.
  2. Our nonprofit status: AFCA is a top-rated charity by various charity watchdogs such as Charity Navigator, Guidestar, and Independent Charities of America. For the second year in a row, AFCA has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator. You can view our profile by clicking here. You can also access our IRS Form 990 there for full financial information.
  3. Spending ratio – AFCA contributes $.94 of every dollar directly to our programs, giving us an incredibly low overhead ratio. We work with lean administrative costs.
  4. Accountability and Transparency – AFCA reports on all programming annually and is overseen by a Board of Directors who thoughtfully reviews every aspect of programming.
  5. Results – The results are the lives of the children in our programs! We see them living and thriving in spite of being infected and/or affect by HIV/AIDS. By building sustainable programs, we are helping children today and into the future. More information is available throughout our website: www.afcaids.org