FAQs

Humanity First USA respects your privacy and adheres to a strong privacy policy.

Humanity First USA is a nonprofit organization that serves disaster struck and socially disadvantaged individuals and families in the poorer communities in the world. Humanity First USA does not sell, trade or rent your personal information to other companies or individuals. Humanity First USA may use information collected through its services and website for research and development purposes. However, such usage will not include any personally identifiable information in such research or analysis. We only use your information for its intended purposes.

Humanity First USA complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13. Personal information collected by Humanity First USA is stored in our secure database. Humanity First USA has the right to divulge information as necessary to comply with any state and federal laws.

This website may contain links to third party websites. Humanity First USA is not responsible for the privacy practices of these other websites. Each charity may also have its own privacy policy regarding donor information. We encourage all donors and/or users to learn about the privacy policies and practices of all websites and charities.

Please contact info@us.humanityfirst.org for any inquiries regarding this website or privacy policy.

Did you know?

The nonprofit sector

• In 2006, there were over 1.9 million nonprofit organizations in the United States.
• There are approximately 1.4 million 501(c)(3) organizations, including hospitals, museums, private schools, religious congregations, orchestras, public television and radio stations, soup kitchens, and foundations.
• In 2004, the nonprofit sector accounted for 5.2 percent of GDP
• Total charitable giving reached $260.3 billion in 2005. In 2002, nearly seven out of ten households gave to charitable causes.
• Most nonprofits are small. More than 73 percent of reporting public charities reported annual expenses of less than $500,000 in 2004. Less than 4 percent of reporting public charities had expenses greater than $10 million.

Volunteering

• 44 percent of adults volunteer.
• 83.9 million American adults volunteer, representing the equivalent of over 9 million full-time employees at a value of $239 billion.
• The hourly value of volunteer time is $18.77 for 2006.

Giving

• 89 percent of households give.
• The average annual contribution for contributors is $1,620.
• Itemizing households give 37 percent more in contributions than nonitemizing households ($1,800 vs. $1,310);
• Itemizers give nearly two-thirds more to religion than nonitemizers;
• Homeowners who itemize their tax deductions give more than homeowners who do not itemize; and
• In every income group examined, itemizing households give at least 40 percent more than non-itemizing households.

Experience at work

• Forty-four percent of adults volunteer and two-thirds of these volunteers began volunteering their time when they were young.
• Adults who began volunteering as youth are twice as likely to volunteer as those who did not volunteer when they were younger.

Engaging youth

• High school volunteering recently reached the highest levels in the past 50 years.
• In every income and age group, those who volunteered as youth give and volunteer more than those who did not.
• Those who volunteered as youth and whose parents volunteered became the most generous adults in giving time

Faith and Philanthropy:

• Over 85 percent of religious-giving households support secular organizations;
• Fifty-two percent (52%) of all households give to both religious congregations and secular organizations, but those households account for 81 percent of all donations;
• Households that give to both types of institutions give more to religion ($1,391) compared to households that only give to religion ($1,154); and
• Fifty-five percent (55%) of dual-giving households give to at least two other kinds of organizations.

Keeping the trust

• 4% of Americans believe charities are honest and ethical in their use of funds.
• 71% of Americans expressed their continued support for charities responding to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
• Donors who have high confidence in charities give approximately 50% more annually than do donors who express low confidence ($1,796 average annual gift vs. $1,245).

Giving in tough economic times

• The most generous households, (those with incomes more than $75,000) decrease their giving by 33 percent from over $3,600 per household to less than $2,500.
• Households with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 decrease their giving by 32 percent from $2,030 to $1,390.
• Households with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000 show a 45 percent decline in giving from $1,300 to $710.
• Households with incomes less than $25,000 decrease their giving by 23 percent from $560 to $430.

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1. Budget for giving. Plan your philanthropic activities right into your budget just as you would other financial obligations.

2. Be an informed giver. Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you’re asked to give, including the specific name of the solicitor and his or her relationship to the organization, how much of your gift will be used for overhead, the specific project the money will go toward, and other important information. Give only when you feel comfortable that your dollars will be going to support an organization you know and believe in.

3. Keep the right records. For gifts of less than $250, a canceled check is sufficient for IRS requirements. For larger gifts, you’ll want to get a properly worded receipt from the charitable organization as a confirmation of your tax-deductible contribution.

4. Be aware of how much is really tax deductible. If you receive a premium in exchange for your gift (such as a book or a dinner), the amount of your tax deduction is reduced by the fair market value of the premium. You can turn down the incentive item if you wish to claim a deduction for the full amount of your gift. Ask the receiving organization for more details.

5. Ask about matching gifts. Many employers match gifts made by their employees or make grants to organizations recommended by employees. Be sure to ask your company how it can help your gift go even further.

6. Remember, your gift can be confidential. If you prefer to have your gift remain confidential, you should let the organization know. You can expect the charitable organization to honor your request.

7. Consider alternative forms of giving. Don’t overlook the benefits to you and your cause received from bequests, charitable gift annuities, gifts in kind, endowments and many other creative forms of giving. Ask your tax advisor or attorney to help you make the best plan for you and your family.

8. Volunteer! In addition to financial support, consider giving your time and skills. Not only will you help the organization, but you’ll also make contacts, hone your skills, and learn more about the charitable cause to which you’re committing your time and money.

9. Don’t forget you have the right to say no. Give generously when you can, but if you’re unsure or feel uncomfortable-or if an organization simply falls outside your plan for giving-don’t be afraid to say no. Or, ask for more information and take more time to think before making your decision.

10. Be a proactive giver! You don’t have to wait to be asked. Plan a giving strategy in advance. Contact the charitable organizations of your choice to discuss how your gifts can be most effectively used and help make a difference in your community.

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Cookies are small text files that are automatically placed onto your device by some websites that you visit. They are widely used to improve the performance of a website, for saving different options and to provide website owners with information on how the site is being used.

We use cookies to enhance the experience of the websites, to increase the performance, to identify how the website is being used and where we can make improvements and to monitor how our advertisements perform. Some of our cookies are vital for the websites to operate effectively and others are optional, but may decrease the usability or performance of the websites.

The cookies that we use can be broken into four categories:

1. Cookies which are necessary to run the websites

 Some of our site cookies are essential to run the websites and without the acceptance or use of these cookies the website or elements of the website will not work. These include, but are not limited to:

? Adding items to a shopping basket

? Remembering items in a shopping basket if you leave the website

2. Cookies which are optional

All other cookies are optional and the removal of these cookies may decrease the usability or performance of our websites. Such optional cookies include,

but are not limited to:

? Remembering that you are logged in across all of our websites

? Your optional settings

? Tracking usage of a website

3. Cookies which ensure value for money

To ensure that we are getting best value for money from our advertisements we may use cookies that track how many people click on the advertisements and subsequent actions which is known as a “click through”.

4. Cookies which are from trusted third parties

 We utilise the technology of third parties on a regular basis to ensure that we are using up to date systems which are managed by the best companies to provide us with the information that we need. This in turn means that there will be a number of third party cookies from our trusted suppliers used on our

websites. Each company is responsible for the cookies that they place onto your device and have separate policy documents to highlight their use.

Our list of trusted third parties who may deploy a cookie to your device, with a link to their cookie details is below:

 Third party Policy location

YouTube                      https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/types/

Google                        https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/types/

Google Analytics      https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/types/

Facebook                  https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/

Twitter                      https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170514

What happens if you disable some or all of the cookies that Humanity First uses?

If you opt to disable some or all cookies, we are unable to guarantee that our websites will operate.

How do I manage my cookie settings?

Internet browsers (such as but not limited to Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari) will allow some control over most cookies through their settings. You will need to refer to the operating manual or review the settings of your browser software to identify what cookies are on your device and how to remove them.

Some third parties may allow you to manage their cookies independently. Please refer to the list of third party providers above and confirm their respective policy pages for further information.

Acceptance of cookie use By continuing to use our website you will have been deemed to have agreed to our use of cookies subject to any preferences you may have indicated to us or any overriding browser settings you may have.

YES

The main concept to remember here to setup ‘donations’ as you would setup an online bill payment through the online banking features.

Virtually all banks today have online banking available to their customers. One of the key features they offer (usually free) is online ‘bill pay’. Typically this involves a one-time set up for a payee (a company or individual you want to send a payment). You can select your payee from a list of common payees (utility companies, mortgage companies, credit card companies, etc) or manually input any other payee that you would like. Once you have setup a payee once, you can always use that to send subsequent payments (or donations in the case of Humanity First).

Setting up Humanity First as a payee would require the following information:

Name of the Payee: Humanity First USA
Account: Enter your full name (if text is allowed) or phone# (if it only accepts digits)
Address: 300 E. Lombard St., Suite 840, Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone Number: 877-994-3872 (877-99-HFUSA)

Once it is setup, you can send a donation using this payee. You can either setup a one time or recurring donation. You have complete control over amount, frequency, and when you want to send the payment. The bank will usually send a paper check and it will arrive at the payee address, on the date you choose. For more information about how to use your bank’s online bill pay features, please try the following tutorial/demo links from several popular US banks.