Editorial: Shuffle can beat a run

When you get down to the nitty gritty, the Mississippi Shuffle is your best local bet for joining the battle against cancer.

The local Relay for Life event through the American Cancer Society steps off at 5:45 p.m. Friday and lasts through the night at Bay Point Park. Tired but committed individuals head home at 9 a.m.

Walkers are expected to raise $125,000. Of that, upwards of $105,000 will go toward services for local patients and their families — ?probably much more, organizers note, since volunteers and gifts will help cover most expenses including park rental and T-shirts.

When someone tells you they are walking all night to fight cancer, both of you know that’s true.

We suspect more than a few participants in last weekend’s Dirty Girl Run will have figurative mud on their face when they learn that their $75 registration fee generated about $1.88 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. We suspect many of them didn’t know.

This isn’t a “dirty” little secret. As the website says, organizers are proud to donate at least 2.5 percent.

Some participants no doubt had tremendous fun for their money. They enjoyed the excuse to tackle a muddy obstacle course — and that a few dollars went to cancer education is a bonus.

For-profit event organizers, like businesses, exist to make money. They hold events to generate traffic and their pennies for charities add up to dollars over time. Charities appreciate anything they can get in this economy.

But if your primary goal is to maximize your charitable dollars, you can do better by choosing a non-profit and specifically one that makes the grade as established by the Minnesota Charities Review Council. That organizations ensures that no more than 17 percent of money given to a registered member organization goes to administration.

The United Way of Goodhue, Wabasha and Pierce Counties, for instance, spends no more than 14 percent on administration. But the agency can promise individual donors that 100 percent of their gifts will go to locally funded non-profits. That is because Corporate Cornerstones — Red Wing Shoe Co., Xcel Energy and Bic/Norwood — have committed to covering all administrative costs.

We encourage people to practice thoughtful giving by checking with the review council.?No other state has a similar independent resource for donors, so use it. You can be most effective in advancing important community work when you know how much you’re really giving and where the money goes.

Tags: opinion, editorials