An
intermediary should be registered in the United States as a charity: Donations
go to them and then to the grantee overseas, so that the donor does not need to
worry about appeasing the IRS. In choosing an intermediary, we need to ask
whether the organization has staff on the ground in the country where we want to
give and how they go about investigating potential recipients. We should also
inquire about what follow-up the intermediary will provide and whether they will
evaluate the way the grant is put to use.
The most prominent intermediaries
focus on one region or field. The Charities Aid Foundation, while operating
worldwide, is considered particularly strong in former British Commonwealth
countries. The Tithes Foundation specializes in social justice projects, both in
the United States and abroad. The King Baudouin Foundation directs grants to
Europe, many of them to arts and historic preservation projects. None of these
specialize in the Middle East (although Give2Asia serves Afghanistan and
Charities Aid Foundation covers Jordan). Only 5 percent of cross-border giving
from the United States goes to that region, according to the Foundation Center.
Much larger outlays go to sub-Saharan Africa (19 percent), Asia and the Pacific
islands (16 percent) and global programs based in Europe (26 percent).Face-to-Face Encounter
A few overseas donors swear off middlemen, however.
“Why take money out of my grant when I can do it directly?” asks Geraldine
Kunstadter, chairman of the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation. She has,
however, turned international giving into practically a full-time volunteer job
since she introduced the foundation to international giving in 1983. (The
foundation is named for her husband’s grandfather, who was the chief executive
of the Formfit intimate apparel company.) The global reach began with an old
friend of Kunstadter’s, a Chinese architect who introduced her to colleagues who
were curious about American architecture during the Cold War period, when they
had been cut off from the West. Kunstadter visited public libraries in the
United States to collect discarded books for them. The books turned into grants,
and now, many years later, the Kunstadter Foundation supports 25 overseas
organizations a year, funding an eclectic mix of education, health and
historical programs.
Kunstadter travels to Asia, Latin America and Africa a
number of times each year to visit the programs she funds and other potential
grantees. On one trip, she met a vice dean of the music department at the Royal
University of Phnom Penn in Cambodia, and he told her he needed lavatories;
faculty members were using the woods. “So I asked him how much money he needed,
and he said it would cost $458.” She wrote him a check. “You can’t just give
money to people who are faceless.”
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