This Is for Charity?

"I often wish it were gone, because it distracts people from the mission," she says. "A lot of times people come away from those things, and they honestly don't know a thing about the charity."

But what of the SMASHED motto, "Remind me tomorrow that I helped someone today"? Is there a way to ensure that a charity's aim will resonate with revelers?

To that end, SMASHED says it sticks with local charities and invites the organizations to its events so that the participants may learn more about the cause. At its Couch Potato Party bar crawl over the summer, the group not only raised $500 for the Homeless Children's Playtime Project, it got more than 80 participants to sign up for an upcoming walk for the homeless.

Involving the charity is imperative, Axelrod says. She advocates giving a representative of the charity 10 or 15 minutes to talk about its mission and, ideally, to introduce someone whose life has been changed by the organization.

"These events that young people are doing, I would call them 'point of entry' events," Axelrod says. So, while the money these events raise is helpful, more helpful is the exposure -- the chance for the charity to collect business cards and follow up for further contact.

Jason Kelly, a 31-year-old District resident, donates to D.C. Central Kitchen -- to the tune of Christmas carols. He and a few former band mates from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School put on an annual concert that boasts everything from Tchaikovsky to the Chipmunks. The $700 they raise every year may not add up to much of the community kitchen's overall fundraising, but it does help get word out about the nonprofit group.

Attendees happily pony up the suggested $7 cover charge when they see it's for charity, says Kelly, who held last year's concert, the seventh, at the Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights. "It gets everybody in a good frame of mind," he says. And it's a lasting frame of mind: Audience members have donated food to the kitchen throughout the year, and Kelly, who knew little about the charity before his Christmas concerts, has since helped with a number of its functions.

Robert Egger, president of D.C. Central Kitchen, says donations from these types of fundraisers give him a better sense of his future donor base.

"The era of checks in the mail, that's ending really fast," he says. "I want to get my head around what these younger people are thinking. How are they going to give in the future? What pushes their buttons?"

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In understanding fundraising, it's important to understand the limitations of disposable income -- which, for young professionals in the area, can be a significant handicap.

SMASHED, for example, is committed to keeping the door costs for its events below $20 -- and the group has yet to ask for more than $10.