Truth Dealer

Over the last few weeks I’ve been approached by WWF, Green peace, the Cancer Society. I’ve been asked to donate to school projects, school fundraisers, private trips, local churches, community organisations.

Every where I go, somebody wants my money.

Maybe it’s the circles I mix in. Maybe the voices of charity are getting louder and shriller during this time of recession. I’m amazed at the generosity of most people.  However a lot of us give whimsically, randomly, and sometimes under coercion.

How do you figure out what to give to? Are some charities more important than others?

Think about this story (inspired by Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save):

You donate a large sum of money to an art gallery. They buy some pieces to display. The gallery catches fire, you are walking past and hear a child screaming. Do you rescue the child or the pieces of artwork?

I guess most of us would rescue the child. If that’s the case then shouldn’t you have used the donation money to rescue a child (or many) in the first place? Certain aid agencies do exactly that – they save kids from dying from the most preventable of diseases (diarrhea or measles for examples).

Why would I donate to a sports club – just to fund someone else’s hobby? Perhaps it comes down to our own priorities, interests – the things that strike an emotional chord within us.  It’s something that we should not stop wrestling with. The combined amounts of money we give has the power to make enormous change in this world.

The sobering and painful realities about charity is that we don’t really have a whole lot of evidence to know if it is working. GiveWell – a charity that researches other charities says this (from their blog).

Even if $1000 can save a life, your $1000 isn’t unless it gets used well. There’s no charity that makes me even 90% confident this is happening, and with the “average” charity I’d bet that it isn’t.

It’s not just about being generous and giving more – it’s also about taking careful consideration of how your donations are going to be used.