Charitable Giving
It’s been a while since I have had time to write (the eternal lament of the lazy blogger), but now that the recent turmoil in my life is beginning to abate, I feel it is time to once again put finger to keyboard.
I was reading a story in this week’s Economist about another famine looming over the beleaguered people of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is like many other countries in the world; where the news is perennially bad and the disasters line up for a shot at the downtrodden. Myanmar/Burma, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe spring instantly to mind, but there are many others.
While in many cases foreign aid and/or general recovery is hobbled by the incompetence or malfeasance of local governments, this is not a reason not to give. It is not the fault of the starving child or the helpless parents that they are trapped in an unwinnable situation.
Granted, without competent or caring government, there is no immediate road to self-sustainability and that any contribution is little more than a hand-out. There is truth in the old proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime”, but it only works so long as he does not die of starvation while building the rod.
In any case, I will not belabour the point. We all know that it is our moral duty to help the poor. What that means exactly is often the real question, but today I only want to address one aspect of that. I myself, like a great man others, have often thought of giving to a charitable organization, but I am afraid that I will choose the wrong one; that my good intention will be squandered in administrative fees or by wolves in the guise of sheep.
I recently stumbled across a website that helps people with this problem. It’s called Charity Navigator. It tracks the public filings of a great many American charities and some international ones. It helps you find a charity that focuses on the issues you care about (ideological in nature or a geographic locale) and then helps you evaluate your chosen charity to see if they are worthy or your giving.
As I perused the website, I certainly came across a certain share of crooks and a bit of the bizarre (”Improving the plight of the American donkey“), I was also heartened to find some which lived up to promise of a true charity. And of course many, many in the middle. Not even charities, it seems, are immune from the tyranny of the bell curve.
In my own mind, I have settled on Direct Relief International (DRI; website). I checked them out pretty thoroughly and looks as though the numbers at Charity Navigator are accurate. A full 98.8% of your funds go towards their intended purpose. I am not sure how this will play out in terms of my own giving, but I am glad I have a place to start.
DRI and perhaps Child’s Play. While Child’s Play targets people whose circumstances are perhaps, when taken in a global view, less desperate, I sincerely believe Gabe and Tycho’s hearts are in the right place and will work to keep the charity efficient.
I do not intend to badger, guilt or cajole with this blog entry. Simply to act as a reminder that we should give and present a worthy medium for doing so.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Yeah Child’s Play! It’s fun to look at the pictures of them unloading like 200 boxes of consoles, and a whole raft load of games. It certainly has become very successful every year.