Well, my Samaritan’s Purse/Operation: Christmas Child donation request came in the mail, so I guess it’s time for my annual PSA about toxic charity.

Let’s start by stating the obvious: there are quite a few charitable organizations that mishandle funding, but groups like Charity Watch and Charity Navigator are awesome about assessing these nonprofits and ensuring their transparency. Using these sites, potential donors can review a nonprofit’s finances and explore key questions like:

– How much of the organization’s revenues actually go to program expenses?
– Is the organization in good legal standing with government agencies?
– What are the executive director and/or CEO’s salaries?
– What is the ratio of fundraising expenses to funds raised?
– Does the organization have policies in place to ensure financial transparency?

Honestly, Samaritan’s Purse is doing okay on this front (if you’re willing to overlook Franklin Graham‘s $570K salary and questionable politics), but there are other factors that can make a charity toxic. When considering a donation or an ongoing sponsorship with a nonprofit, always ask what mindset the organization is encouraging:

– Is the organization providing a service that is genuinely helpful to people in poverty?
– Is the organization providing long-term partnership or just short-term relief?
– Are the people receiving aid being commodified or exploited in some way?
– Does the organization’s marketing use images of suffering and poverty to emotionally manipulate donors?
– Is there an “us helping them” narrative instead of “all of us working together”?
– Does the organization invite donors to learn as they give?
– Is the organization forcing one religion or worldview on those receiving aid?

Operation: Christmas Child falls short on all of these. Setting aside the perennial rumors about warehouses full of unused boxes, many of the toys and items people send are unfamiliar or useless to those who receive them. Worse, the boxes may actually prevent local craftsmen from selling toys, socks, and other traditional shoebox items, thus hurting the local economy instead of helping. The shoeboxes don’t encourage any kind of reciprocal relationship between donors and givers; if anything, OCC’s marketing encourages stereotyping of those in need. And perhaps worst of all, OCC practices forced evangelism by automatically enrolling shoebox recipients into classes about Jesus.

I understand how filling up a shoebox for Operation: Christmas Child gives people a good feeling, and the big pile of boxes at the front of your church sure makes a great photo op, but we’re the only ones really benefiting from it. If you want to help, and I mean really help, there are other organizations that will make your contribution go much farther. Instead of filling up a shoebox, consider a donation to any of these:

Charity: Water
Preemptive Love
Heifer International
Doctors Without Borders
World Relief
International Rescue Committee

If disaster relief is on your heart after Hurricane Irma, consider giving to UMCOR.

If you want to foster economic development in struggling communities, set up a recurring Kiva micro-loan to jumpstart local businesses.

If you want an ongoing personal connection with the people you’re assisting, consider a sponsorship with Compassion or World Vision, both of which will happily accept one-time gifts as well. (For the record, Samaritan’s Purse has a sponsorship program too, but it’s horrifically mismanaged.)

And then there are the needs right here in the US:

If helping struggling artists and creators is your thing, head over to Patreon, and find some folks in need of financial support.

If you can’t get white supremacists off your mind after Charlottesville, Life After Hate will use your contribution to combat racist brainwashing and help people escape.

If you’re dead set on giving stuff instead of money, first of all, you’re wrong, but even so, a sock drive for a local homeless resource center or children’s hospital will do way more than sending a shoebox.

Speaking of homeless resource centers, if you’re in Jacksonville, City Rescue Mission and the Sulzbacher Center are both amazing partners to our homeless friends. If you’re concerned about kids in particular, consider a gift to a local children’s hospital like Wolfson (and, FYI, they really need baby socks and booties). If refugees are on your mind in these tough political times, our local World Relief office can always use your support, or you could go with another issue close to my heart: First Coast No More Homeless Pets and the Jacksonville Humane Society (who helped us rescue and treat Cowbell).

And then there are the organizations I work with directly. Campus to City Wesley, Swaim UMC, StoryHouse, The Well at Springfield, Church Without Walls, Reimagining, Brew Theology, and yes, even Bar Chaplain will use your contributions to minister to people who feel neglected and alone and lost in the shuffle. And if the photo op is really that important to you, any one of us will happily pose with a novelty oversized check.

Just please, don’t waste time and money on those shoeboxes when there are more responsible organizations that can do far more with your resources! These organizations encourage the mindset that we’re all in this together. We’re all humans made in the image of God– not a separate “us” and “them” for organizations to commodify. Let’s let our giving reflect this mindset.

Stop filling shoeboxes. Start helping.