A resource for local giving

Kansas City Giving Guide

Read this first. If your giving is not tied to a place, it can almost always do more good elsewhere. A dollar goes furthest where dollars are scarce: the most cost-effective charities we know of work on global health and poverty in low-income countries, where the best of them avert a death for a few thousand dollars, a price no rich-country program approaches. If you have not committed your giving locally, start with GiveWell or Giving What We Can instead of this page.

This guide is for the money and effort that is already earmarked for Kansas City: local donors, local volunteers, employer matches restricted to the metro, civic energy that will be spent here or not at all. Given that constraint, it answers one question as carefully as we can: where does a marginal Kansas City dollar do the most good?

Around forty local organizations were vetted against the metro's highest-impact causes: does each one deliver a proven intervention, and does it show its work? Every organization was assessed on a uniform instrument: identity and financials verified against IRS filings (never search results); intervention match against published cost-effectiveness evidence (awareness campaigns and galas do not count); an A–F evidence grade; an outcome-transparency grade; and room for funding. Grades measure fit and transparency, not whether an org's people are good; several downgraded organizations do valuable work outside this frame. The cause ranking comes from a quantified burden-and-prioritization analysis of the metro, linked in full under references.

Tier 1: give with confidence

Evidence-matched, financially verified, and sized (or gapped) so a marginal gift matters. One organization earns two slots.

Cancer screening + hypertension

Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center

The only org in this study with peer-reviewed published outcomes: its patient-navigation program raised colorectal screening from 31% to 59%. Also one of nine national CDC-funded self-measured blood pressure pilot sites. Restrict gifts to navigation/SMBP, and give to the health center itself, not its dormant foundation entity.

EIN 43-0899356 · $31.9M revenue (FY23)

samrodgers.org

Overdose

First Call

Confirmed street-level naloxone, fentanyl test strip, and overdose-response training delivery across both states, at a size where a gift is a real fraction of budget, and with a dated concrete gap: its joint federal harm-reduction grant expired May 2025.

EIN 44-0641486 · $4.1M revenue (FY23)

firstcallkc.org

Elderly falls

Shepherd's Center of KC Central

Delivers A Matter of Balance (a named, evidence-based falls program) in-house, with a live class schedule, and has run three straight years of operating deficits: a demonstrated funding gap in the most actionable top cause. Ask what share of a gift reaches the falls program.

EIN 43-0994417 · $1.6M revenue (FY23)

kcshepherdscenter.org

Road traffic

BikeWalkKC

The advocacy engine behind the one traffic lever proven to work here: Complete Streets (2017), the GO bond's street money, Vision Zero's adoption, and a seat on its task force while city traffic deaths fell 102 to 68. By its own admission, advocacy is its hardest work to fund.

EIN 45-3832438 · $1.2M revenue (FY23)

bikewalkkc.org

The full registry

Every organization that made it to a grade (18 of ~40 assessed; the rest failed identity, locality, or relevance screens). Causes appear in ITN rank order so you can see which have vehicles and which sit empty; switch to the tier view for a straight recommendation list. Evidence grades: A = delivers a named proven intervention with fidelity signals; B = proven model, fidelity or currency unresolved; C = adjacent services or awareness work; F = disqualifying. Transparency: does the org publish outcomes, not activity counts. Expand any row for the reasoning.

Where nothing exists to fund: the create-it list

Four of the fifteen causes, including the #1-ranked one, have no clean local giving vehicle. These are the biggest openings for a funder or organizer who wants to build rather than give.

  • Tobacco cessation (the #1 cause). The state quitline is run by a Denver nonprofit under government contract; the one local clinical cessation program's page is dead. Nearest moves: confirm whether Swope Health's "Resolve to Stop Smoking" still operates, or vet Tobacco Free Missouri as a state-advocacy bet against Missouri funding tobacco control at 7.4% of the CDC-recommended level.
  • Full-model CAPABLE falls prevention with public reporting. One unadvertised CAPABLE site exists inside a $75M hospice organization. A funder could underwrite the CAPABLE National Center's training pathway for a KC host that already has the adjacent infrastructure.
  • A charitable on-ramp to Project RISE. The hospital-based violence intervention at University Health is the best-evidenced violence program in the region, and it is tax-funded with no earmark pathway at the hospital foundation. One phone call could change that.
  • An independent evaluation of SAVE KC. Its self-reported numbers are internally inconsistent across its own press coverage, and KC's last focused-deterrence program (KC NoVA) posted celebrated early numbers before decaying to an official Ineffective rating. Funding rigorous outside evaluation before scale-up is worth more than funding programming.
The donor-deployability asymmetry. Tobacco ranks #1 in the ITN analysis but has nothing to fund without building the channel first. Falls ranks #3 and has a starving, evidence-matched vehicle accepting money today. "Best cause" and "best gift you can make this month" are different questions, and this guide answers the second.

The phone-call list

Five facts a person with a phone can resolve that no amount of remote research could. Each one would firm up a Tier 2 recommendation.

  1. YMCA of Greater KC (816-561-9622): what is your diabetes-prevention program's CDC recognition tier? Full recognition means it hit CDC's outcome thresholds and moves to Tier 1.
  2. Swope Health (816-923-5800): does "Resolve to Stop Smoking" still operate, and what is your HRSA-reported hypertension-control rate?
  3. KC CARE Health Center: what is the syringe program's current status and scale? (The widely-cited 750,000-needles figure is 2018 reporting.)
  4. University Health Foundation: can a gift be designated to Project RISE?
  5. Midland Care Connection: can a gift be restricted to the Overland Park CAPABLE site, and will you publish its outcomes?

What the vetting revealed about Kansas City

  • KC's nonprofits are a transparency desert. Almost nobody publishes outcome data. No safety-net clinic posts its blood-pressure control rate (all report it to the federal government privately); no harm-reduction org publishes reversal counts; no violence org has independently evaluated results. Transparency graded Opaque or Partial across nearly the entire field, and fixing that is itself a philanthropic opportunity.
  • The best-evidenced interventions are government-run and cannot take your money. Nurse-Family Partnership is the health department. The crisis system is the county. The falls classes run through the Area Agencies on Aging. For several causes, the strongest move is civic advocacy, not a check.
  • One organization clears the bar twice. Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center is the only org with peer-reviewed outcomes and holds a national pilot role in a second cause. It advertises neither. The correlation between marketing volume and evidence quality in this field is approximately zero.
  • The vetting fed back into the rankings. Three neglectedness scores moved (falls down, tobacco and overdose up); re-running the Monte Carlo left the headline ranking unchanged and swapped only the factor-product view's #1 and #2, inside the published intervals. The part 2 page carries the update.

Method and limits

Financials come from IRS Form 990 filings via ProPublica's API, mostly FY2023; functional-expense detail was not audited, top-lines only. Program claims were verified on each organization's own pages or primary documents; every unverified item in the underlying research is labeled rather than asserted. "Opaque" means no public outcomes were found, not that none exist internally. Candid/GuideStar transparency seals were not systematically pulled. These are transparency-and-fit audits, not independent program evaluations: they establish whether the model is proven and whether the organization shows its work, not whether its KC implementation is working. On syringe services: Kansas bans them outright; Missouri provides no statutory authorization, yet the metro's one exchange has historically operated openly, so the reality is local tolerance without legal protection.

Built with a multi-agent research pipeline I direct, over the burden model (part 1) and cost-effectiveness evidence (part 2) of this series. Grades are structured judgment over verified evidence, stated so you can disagree with them precisely.

References and companion analyses

This guide sits on two quantitative analyses: a burden-of-disease model of the metro (every major problem in annual DALYs and dollars, with confidence intervals) and an impact × tractability × neglectedness prioritization of fifteen causes (Monte Carlo rank intervals, published simulation code). Interactive versions with charts: the burden analysis, the ITN ranking (with adjustable scores), and the original guide. The simulation code is public. Full source lists for both analyses follow; flags mark anything that resisted primary verification.

Burden-of-disease sources

  1. WHO Global Health Estimates 2021, DALY/YLL/YLD by country (June 2024 revision), USA columns. who.int
  2. Missouri Vital Statistics 2023, Tables 16C/22A/23/26C. health.mo.gov (PDF)
  3. Kansas Annual Summary of Vital Statistics 2023; Kansas Infant Mortality and Stillbirth Report 2024. kdhe.ks.gov
  4. CDC PLACES, 2025 release (2023 BRFSS), county and place model-based estimates with 95% CIs, pulled via the Socrata API. data.cdc.gov
  5. KCPD Daily Homicide Analysis (pulled 2026-08-14): 2023=182, 2024=145, 2025=139. mediaweb.kcpd.org (PDF); KCPD 2025 year-end release (archived).
  6. KCUR Vision Zero reporting, Jan 2024 / Jan 2025 / Jan 2026: KCMO traffic deaths 102 → 97 → 68. kcur.org
  7. MIMH Addiction Science, KC-area drug-involved deaths (county medical examiner data): 4-county 2024 = 402, −10% vs 2023. mimhaddisci.org; Jackson County overdose fact sheet, MO DHSS (2022 vintage, archived).
  8. CDC VSRR provisional drug overdose deaths, Missouri 12-month-ending Dec 2023 (2,014) and Dec 2024 (1,482), pulled via API. data.cdc.gov
  9. GBD 2021 US Burden of Disease Collaborators, The Lancet (2024). PMC11694014
  10. Everytown Research, The Economic Cost of Gun Violence: Missouri $17.6B/yr, $2,875/resident; 87.8% of the national total is quality-of-life valuation (VSL $10.9M, 2019$). everytownresearch.org
  11. CDC, Economic Trends in Tobacco (verified from CDC’s archive mirror): cigarette smoking cost the US more than $600B in 2018 ($240B+ health care, ~$185B lost productivity from illness, ~$180B from premature death, ~$7B secondhand-smoke deaths). archive.cdc.gov
  12. AHA 2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics (Circulation; verified verbatim from the PMC copy): average annual US CVD cost $422.3B in 2019–2020 ($254.3B direct + $168.0B indirect). PMC12146881
  13. American Diabetes Association, Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2022: $412.9B total ($306.6B direct). diabetes.org
  14. Greenberg et al., PharmacoEconomics 2021: US burden of adult MDD, $237B (2010) → $326B (2018). analysisgroup.com
  15. NHTSA, The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2019 (DOT HS 813 403): $340B economic, ~$1.4T comprehensive; $1.6M / $11.3M per fatality. crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov (PDF)
  16. Sacks et al., Am J Prev Med 2015 (verified via CDC’s release): excessive drinking cost the US $249B in 2010, $2.05/drink; binge drinking 77% of costs. State-level Missouri figure not independently verifiable (article paywalled, state tool JS-only). archive.cdc.gov
  17. NCI Cancer Trends Progress Report (verified from the archived page): national cancer-care costs projected at $208.9B in 2020 (2020$, medical services + oral prescription drugs), built on Mariotto et al. 2020. progressreport.cancer.gov (archived)
  18. Ward et al. 2021, PLOS ONE: excess medical cost of obesity $1,861/adult/yr; $173B national (2019$). PMC7990296
  19. Florence et al., CDC MMWR 2021: state-level costs of OUD and fatal overdose, 2017: Missouri $18.515B; ~84% of the national total is intangible (QoL + VSL). PMC8344997
  20. McCollister, French & Fang 2010, Drug and Alcohol Dependence: cost per murder $8,982,907 (2008$); aggravated assault $107,020; robbery $42,310. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2009.12.002
  21. National Academies, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty (2019): child poverty costs the US $800B–$1.1T/yr. nationalacademies.org
  22. CDC older-adult falls cost data: $50B national medical (2014$); Missouri $883M, Kansas $338M. stacks.cdc.gov
  23. Berkowitz et al., Health Services Research 2018 (verified from the PMC copy): food insecurity carries $1,863/person/yr excess health expenditures ($6,072 vs $4,208), $77.5B aggregate (NHIS 2011 + MEPS 2012–13). PMC5980147
  24. HUD CoC Performance Profile, MO-604, 2024: PIT 2,181 (2023: 1,986); chronic 377 (+35%). hudexchange.info (PDF)
  25. Eviction Lab, Kansas City tracker (Jackson County filings, monthly CSV). evictionlab.org
  26. County Health Rankings 2025, Missouri and Kansas data files: YPLL-75 and life expectancy with 95% CIs (2020–22 aggregate). Jackson 11,090.3 (10,807.9–11,372.7); Wyandotte 11,750.9; Johnson 4,976.6; life expectancy 74.76 / 73.70 / 80.64. countyhealthrankings.org
  27. ZIP-level life expectancy: KCMO Health Department, Community Health Improvement Plan 2022–2027: ZIP 64113 (Brookside) 86.3 years vs ZIP 64128 (east side) 68.1 years, an 18-year gap that grew from 12 years between 2016 and 2019 (CHIP figures confirmed via FlatlandKC’s coverage of the plan; the CHIP portal itself is a JS app). The once-circulating 19.3-year figure appears in no primary source and is dropped. flatlandkc.org
  28. Chetty et al., JAMA 2016: top-1% vs bottom-1% income life-expectancy gap, 14.6 years (men), 10.1 (women). jamanetwork.com
  29. KCUR, Dec 2024: 571 nonfatal shootings in 2024; KCPD 2025 release: nonfatal shootings −31%.
  30. EPA, annual PM2.5 design values 2020–2022 (Feb 2024 table): Jackson 7.9, Clay 6.0, Johnson 8.9, Wyandotte 10.8 µg/m³. epa.gov (PDF)
  31. Di et al., NEJM 2017;376:2513-22 (verified verbatim from the PMC copy): +7.3% all-cause mortality per 10 µg/m³ PM2.5 (95% CI 7.1–7.5); +13.6% (CI 13.1–14.1) below 12 µg/m³. PMC5766848
  32. FRED (St. Louis Fed) ACS series: poverty and median household income, Jackson / Wyandotte / Johnson counties, 2020–2024.
  33. Missouri Hunger Atlas 2023, Jackson County: food insecurity 11.5% overall, 16.1% of children (2021 data). mohungeratlas.org (PDF)
  34. Education: KCPS graduation rate rose from 72.2% (2022) to 88.6% (2025) per district board reporting (Beacon News; DESE-primary confirmation still blocked by the portal’s bot gate); KCPS proficiency and all USD 500 figures remain unverified and are not asserted. thebeaconnews.org partially unresolved
  35. Missouri DHSS childhood lead surveillance: latest opened data is 2019 statewide (1,426 elevated of 78,770 tested); the current annual report exists but its PDF links are dead and KC-specific current figures could not be retrieved. Treat as outdated. unresolved
  36. KCUR, Aug 2024: Missouri DHSS 34 heat deaths (2023) vs NWS 0; systematic undercount of heat mortality.

Prioritization sources (tractability and neglectedness)

  1. Community Preventive Services Task Force, tobacco cessation economic reviews: quitline counseling $2,358/QALY (IQI $1,761–$3,156); counseling plus medications $849/QALY (IQI $369–$2,426), 2013$. thecommunityguide.org
  2. KCUR, 2025-07-20: Missouri cigarette tax 17 cents/pack since 1993, lowest in the US; raising it requires a ballot initiative under the Hancock Amendment. kcur.org
  3. RSMo §149.192 (1993), read from the statute: the state "occupies and preempts the entire field of legislation increasing the taxation of cigarettes and tobacco products"; new local tobacco taxes are void and existing local taxes are frozen at their September 30, 1993 levels. revisor.mo.gov
  4. Kansas constitutional home rule (Art. 12 §5); Topeka Tobacco 21 ordinance upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court.
  5. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Missouri FY2026 state report: $5.4M spent vs $72.9M CDC-recommended (7.4%), rank 39/50, up from dead last circa 2019. Retrieved via archive snapshot. tobaccofreekids.org
  6. CTFK "Broken Promises to Our Children" FY2024: states spend 2.8% of tobacco revenue on prevention (22% of CDC-recommended). tobaccofreekids.org
  7. Coffin & Sullivan, Annals of Internal Medicine 2013;158(1):1-9: naloxone distribution $438/QALY base case (95% CI $48–$1,706), $14,000/QALY worst case; verified from the abstract (no open-access full text exists). PubMed 23277895.
  8. Sordo et al., BMJ 2017;357:j1550 (read from the PMC full text): all-cause mortality 11.3 vs 36.1 per 1,000 person-years in vs out of methadone treatment (rate ratio 3.20, CI 2.65–3.86); 4.3 vs 9.5 for buprenorphine (rate ratio 2.20, CI 1.34–3.61). PMC5421454
  9. Missouri fentanyl test strips legalized effective 2023-08-28; statewide naloxone standing order in place. Syringe services: NOT authorized under Missouri law (RSMo 579.040/579.074 contain no SSP exemption, read from statute; the 2021 legalization bill was SB 64, died in committee; 2026 bills HB 2602/SB 1219 remain in committee; the July 2026 omnibus healthcare law is silent on SSPs). revisor.mo.gov
  10. CDC VSRR provisional overdose deaths: Missouri 12-month-ending Dec 2023 = 2,014, Dec 2024 = 1,482 (−26.4%). data.cdc.gov
  11. MIMH Addiction Science, KC-area medical examiner data: 4-county drug deaths 402 in 2024 (−10%); 65+ deaths +94%; Black male deaths +11%. mimhaddisci.org
  12. The Beacon, 2026-04-15: Missouri opioid settlement ~$900M over ~15 years (roughly double the 2022 estimate); 50+ jurisdictions spent nothing in 2025; Jackson County ~$4M unspent. thebeaconnews.org
  13. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, verified filings: First Call $4.1M revenue; ReDiscover $75.6M; Tri-County Mental Health $26.2M; Nurture KC $3.3M; KC Common Good $0.9M (FY2023–24). propublica.org
  14. CHCS profile of CAPABLE: ~$3,000/participant; $22,120 average 2-year Medicare savings (CMMI demonstration); $867/month Medicaid savings in a dual-eligible study.
  15. PLOS ONE 2022 (PMC9020705): Otago in a post-fall cohort, fall-rate reduction 39% (men, significant) / 32% (women, ns); delivery cost $393/person (2019 CAD).
  16. Verified absence: no dedicated Kansas City falls-prevention nonprofit or funder found in a systematic sweep.
  17. Stark & Shah, JAMA 2017;317(1):84-85 (read from the full text): gun violence received 1.6% of funding predicted by mortality ($22M observed vs $1.4B predicted) and 4.5% of predicted publications; falls is the least-funded cause of death relative to mortality, gun violence second. jamanetwork.com
  18. Administration for Community Living: ~$53M cumulative falls-prevention grants since 2014, against $50–80B/yr in fall-related medical costs. acl.gov
  19. CPSTF economic reviews: self-measured blood pressure monitoring $2,800–$10,800/QALY (2014$); team-based hypertension care $15,202/QALY (2020$) with median health-system ROI of −80% (cost-effective, not self-funding). thecommunityguide.org
  20. Health Forward Foundation: $905.3M assets, $50.3M expenses (FY2023, ProPublica raw filing data); current purpose framework (People/Power/Place/Platform) names no disease areas. propublica.org · healthforward.org
  21. SHADAC/TFAH state public health funding, FY2023: Missouri $6.67/capita (50th of 50); Indiana $15.16 (49th); Kansas $31.78. Cross-referenced against America's Health Rankings' broader $92/person measure (different definition: 2-year average including federal pass-through, rank 41st). americashealthrankings.org
  22. Tupper v. City of St. Louis (Mo. banc 2015); St. Louis Automated Camera Enforcement Act (2024, driver-face capture); statewide camera-ban bills HB658/SB196 not passed as of mid-2026.
  23. KCUR Vision Zero series: KCMO traffic deaths 102 (2023) → 97 (2024) → 68 (2025). kcur.org
  24. KCUR, 2026-04-02: KCMO FY2026-27 budget: Vision Zero $4M (earlier reporting cited $8M for FY2025-26; unreconciled). kcur.org
  25. Wu, Dean, Rosen & Muennig, J Health Care Poor Underserved 2017;28(4):1578-97: Nurse-Family Partnership at $14,642/QALY offered to all first-time mothers (CI spans cost-saving to $71,877); net benefit $2,764/child targeted to high-risk mothers. PubMed 29176115
  26. Verified hospital CHNA priority lists: University Health 2025-28 (behavioral health #1, violence named); Children's Mercy 2022-25 (mental health, violence named); Saint Luke's 2023 (behavioral health). Infant/maternal health appears in none.
  27. CPSTF economic review: multicomponent colorectal cancer screening interventions $1,651–$3,817/QALY (2016$).
  28. Nguyen et al., Lancet Regional Health – Americas 2024 (NIH RCDC 2021): cancer $6,520M (highest non-HIV $/patient); neck pain funded at 0.83% of DALY-predicted (a 120× gap); low back pain 13.88%; COPD $5.56/patient. PMC10788788
  29. Braga, Weisburd & Turchan, Campbell systematic review of focused deterrence (24 quasi-experiments): statistically significant moderate effects, smaller in more rigorous designs (via OJP abstract).
  30. University of Chicago Crime Lab, READI Chicago RCT (n=2,456): null on the pre-registered primary outcome; outreach-referred subgroup −79% shooting/homicide arrests (significant); benefit-cost 4:1–18:1. crimelab.uchicago.edu
  31. Fox & Novak, Police Quarterly 2018 (KC NoVA time-series evaluation); NIJ CrimeSolutions rating: Ineffective. KCPD withdrew 2018. SAVE KC (2024–): self-reported −40% group-member homicides, no independent evaluation. crimesolutions.ojp.gov
  32. RSMo 21.750, read from revisor.mo.gov: complete state preemption of local firearms regulation; SAPA struck down (8th Cir. 2024). revisor.mo.gov
  33. Jackson County COMBAT: ~$30M/yr quarter-cent sales tax; $4.8M violence-prevention grants (2024); KCMO Department of Community Safety ~$20M (KCTV5). jacksoncountycombat.com
  34. PMC2826303: collaborative care for depression, systematic review of 8 RCTs: $21,478–$49,500/QALY. PMC2826303
  35. The Beacon, 2026-04-02: Missouri 988 funded from general revenue; ~$18.5M (988) + ~$22.3M (crisis services) proposed FY2027; dedicated telecom-fee bill stalled. thebeaconnews.org
  36. Diabetes Care 2025 real-world NDPP cost-effectiveness: −$4,552 two-year medical costs (CI crosses zero), no significant 2-year QALY gain, 84% probability cost-effective at $100K/QALY.
  37. Gillum et al., PLOS ONE 2011: NIH funding vs burden: depression (−$719M), injuries (−$691M), COPD (−$613M) most underfunded; AIDS (+$2,474M), diabetes (+$390M), perinatal research (+$297M) overfunded. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016837
  38. Wagenaar, Salois & Komro, Addiction 2009;104(2):179-90 (verified from abstract + full text): 112 studies / 1,003 estimates; elasticities beer −0.46, wine −0.69, spirits −0.80, overall −0.51, heavy drinking −0.28. PubMed · full text (PDF)
  39. Suicide means-restriction: PMC11450421 (full bridge barriers −63/−74%; partial measures ineffective); PMC7514406 (lethal-means counseling: feasibility evidence only). KC's method mix is firearm-dominant, and firearm policy is preempted.
  40. Verified absence: no CPSTF-recommended city-scale musculoskeletal intervention found; MSK is a research opportunity, not a deployment target.
  41. RSMo 67.1571 (local minimum wage preemption, read from statute); Prop A paid sick leave repealed by HB 567, effective 2025-08-28, ~9 months after voters passed it.
Researched and vetted by Alex Hedtke for Effective Altruism Kansas City · August 2026 · financials from IRS Form 990 filings via ProPublica, mostly FY2023 · corrections and updates: info@eakansascity.org