I have been inundated with requests for donations lately, from dear friends who are running or walking or biking for one cause or another.
I too used to do these events -- I did the March of Dimes Walkathon when I was in middle school (it almost killed my mother and me, in the freezing rain on the hills of Pittsburgh), and I repeatedly performed an exceedingly long walk through Boston for which I can no longer remember the cause.
However, what I'm struck by now is a cynicism regarding many charity organizations.
Don't get me wrong, our family donates to charity -- we just stick to the ones I know most about. I donate the most to my study abroad program, JYM, so fools like me can obtain geography lessons.
And I also feel good about the use of my dollars at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and our local Community Concern for Cats. My family has personally witnessed how our donated money keeps pets out of the pound and into loving homes, so I get their causes.
And I DO want to stomp out breast cancer and leukemia and infertility and everything that plagues humans. I just don't understand how my dollars work to do this through these organizations. The route of the money is too labyrinthine, and when I DO donate to these organizations, I end up getting so much damn MAIL about it, I feel they've wasted my whole donation by slowly mailing it all back to me with wasted paper and postage.
So help me please, help me see my way through to donating to these causes. Would a $50 donation to the Avon Breast Cancer Walk really help find a cure? Aren't there enough financial incentives in the private sector to spur on the very best cancer research?
I would like to feel in control of these things, and I have in the past, but how can the March of Dimes really prevent premature birth? Isn't the medical community sufficiently spurred on to prevent this tragedy by their own passions and the financial support of large medical organizations and pharmaceutical companies?
So PLEASE talk me out of my tree on this one, bring back the idealistic twinkle in my eye. If you have a charity you really love, and you're walking the walk for it, tell me that I can actually make the difference, and WHY additional dollars for the cause make sense, and tell me how I can desist from receiving mail in perpetuity about it.
Anyway, I love these walks, but my cynicism has me paralyzed at the sidelines...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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This is me getting all spiritual up in your comments: if you feel it, do it. If the charity is not speaking to your soul, and you are looking for justification, give elsewhere. Good causes led by good people are sustained one way or another. The huge charities as well as the tiny ones.
Philosophically, I think you're right Fringes. I do worry, even if the charities aren't ones I feel connected to, about letting down my friends somehow.
hey, my friend just clued me into Kiva, a lending organization that lets you be a part of giving people a chance to build their business in (mostly) third world countries. And you do get your $$ back. You can start as low as $25, I haven't picked a person yet, but I plan to. Maybe this can help with the cynicism? I do fundraisers sometimes, mostly I just hit up my brother. :)
This past year, I sat down and decided how much money we were going to give to charity. Then I picked out charities and made their budget. I left some discretionary money to be used for anything else that came up. I guess there is never a guarantee how the money might be used, but I tend to give to local things as if something is awry, I'll know soon enough!
Sorry, to have part 2, but because I do this, it is easier for me to refuse as I can refer to my charity budget. Often I try to give in non-monetary ways...goods, services, time, etc.
Kiva looks fascinating! I'm intrigued by the .1 default rate. These people are paying back their loans WAY faster and more reliably than people in the US do.
And a charity budget is a good idea. We don't usually know our budget until December, but it would be good to allocate percentages ahead of time. And maybe put aside some money for friends' causes?
In our neighborhood, as soon as the weather gets even slightly warm, there will be a knock at the door once or twice a week. And never mind that it's nearly dinnertime and I know absoLUTEly, that this is not going to be anyone offering to help wrangle the kids or finish off the meal while I go upstairs and sip wine while staring off into space...no, I still, knowingly and like the dimwit that I am....open the door. And always ALWAYS, it's someone looking for $$. (Or my soul, but that's a different story...)
And so after a year or two of spending a ridiculous amount of money in equally ridiculous tiny amounts, we also went with the charity budget approach. A GREAT way to go -- and also I don't burn dinner nearly as often.
Another thing to look into: charitynavigator.org. This is one of a few sites that provide data you can use to evaluate and compare charities. You can even search by a pet cause and figure out the best way to maximize your investment. Kiva's also a fantastic way to go.
Also, when Chebbles is a little older, check out the book "Beatrice's Goat" and Heifer.org. The book tells the story of a girl and her family benefitting from a goat provided to them through Heifer.org, and it made everything click with my kids. They could really relate to how the donation changed Beatrice's life. Of course, I wept hormonally while reading it to them....but I'm a big sap....
KP
We too, donate to plenty of charities. However, I'm NOT a fan of most of those walk/run events.
A) If you research what % of money even goes to charity, it's quite low with some of them. And it's taking advantage of people's emotions for the topic at hand. (who would say, no, sorry, I'm FOR Breast Cancer) That straight up pisses me off.
B) (here comes the rightfully, IMO, cynical scientist-by-training part) Sometimes the best, most groundbreaking earthshaking research results come from a lab that works with Drosophila (fruit flies), nematodes , zebra fish ( a model fish organism), or even something like arabadopsis (a plant!).
So does a Breast Cancer Charity donate to them? Or do they only donate to labs doing "breast cancer research"? Because really, it's so much broader than that scientifically. Believe it or not things that go on in fruit flies are often EXACTLY what is going on in a given cancer. Same cell signaling path.
OK, off my soapbox. So yes, I feel somewhat curmudgeonly, but no, I won't support those walks.
The exception I've found so far is one local one I can explain, if you want.
Can you tell you hit a nerve of mine???? lol
Your advice is really awesome -- thanks folks! I thought people would write back about how heartless I am, as if I'm, as GM puts it, FOR breast cancer.
Thanks again -- glad I'm not the only one consistently put in this quandary.
Sorry, can't talk you out of your tree because if you look to your right, you'll see me sitting on the next branch.
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