Charity is a Good and Noble thing, But Be Careful where you give
Posted By Kathleen David on March 7, 2012
Recently there has been a video going around the Internet by a charity called “Invisible Children”. The problem they are trying to get your dollars for is an old one that hasn’t happened since 2006. Yes, these children do need support but this charity is rather suspicious in its use of the funds that others have given them. They have very little transparency to the uses of the monies and what we can figure out is that a majority seems to be spent on salaries of the employees of the charity and film equipment and computer equipment. The footage they are using is a rehash of footage they used previously plus some new footage. There is no disclaimer about this. So they are playing on the heartstrings to get money from you using information that is no longer factual.
(There is a well written article about this here)
If I give to a charity, I do a lot of research as to the percentage of funds are used for the cause I am supporting as opposed to being spent on salaries and keeping the charity comfortable (nice offices and the like). If I give money, I want a majority of it to go to the purpose.
Most of the charities I support are global but some are very local. They do things within my community that make life better for the children in the area. I can point to programs that are offered and structures that have been built by these groups. For some of the larger ones, I read the materials that they send me about what they are doing and I keep an eye on them through various groups that monitor charities. If the charity starts going off in a direction I don’t believe in, I don’t donate. Simple as that. I vote with my money.
I have also given money to groups that I trust. Recently an artist/editor that I have met and has done a lot to help a lot of young artists and writers catch a break got into a bit of financial difficulty and there was a fund raiser to help her and her family through a rather difficult time. I participated in that because I trusted the people who where running it to get the money to the person in need.
There are a lot of hands out asking for one’s help. Some are legit and do good works and others are shells and use the money to make sure that they have a good life. We want to help others but we have to do the work to make sure our money is working the way that we want it to.
I am grateful to charities that help people for real.
great post. With the internet it’s becoming easier to directly help out people, with less of a middleman. Some charities are good, some are just publicity opportunities for celebrities and ways to make money for the charity mangers.
I would urge people to consider giving to individuals . $50 in the pocket of a person in need is probably worth $100 to the average charity. Which means if you want to give $100 you could help twice as many people if you take the time to find those in need.
If you want to be a patron of the arts, go on kickstarter. It’s probably trickier to help those overseas but I have known several people who went to other countries and I trust them enough to know that if I gave them $100 it would go 100% to helping actual people in the poor areas, with nothing lost to graft, corruption and shipping & handling costs.