Giving to charity (part 1)

Everyone knows that donating money to charity is a good thing. But which charity? How do you decide which charities to give money to?

Some charities operate locally, some nationally and some internationally. The adage ‘charity begins at home’ would suggest starting with local charities. But even the worst-off people in New Zealand have a standard of living that is astronomically higher than millions of people in third world countries. The same amount of money could potentially make a much larger difference overseas.

And then there is the question of what type of charity to give to. Charities usually work in a small niche:

• Health: breast cancer, child cancer, cancer, heart disease, asthma, haemophilia, MS, deafness, blindness, diabetes, AIDS, Alzheimer's, arthritis as well as various hospitals and hospices
• Victims of crime: Sexual Abuse Help, Rape Crisis, Victim Support
• Children: Kids First, Starship, Barnados, Make A Wish, Books in Homes, Plunket, La Leche League
• Old people: Grey Power, Age Concern, Meals on Wheels Animals: Anti-vivisection, SPCA, Project Jonah, and various specific charities devoted to helping particular endangered species Human rights: Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch
• Social stuff: Rescue helicopter, St John Ambulance, Surf Lifesaving, Coastguard, Search & Rescue, Citizens Advice Bureau, Habitat for Humanity, Safer Streets, Youth Suicide prevention
• Poverty: World Vision, Unicef, Make Poverty History, TearFund, Christian Children’s Fund, Oxfam, Red Cross
• Environmental: Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, WWF, Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society

While obviously all of these charities do good work and are important to the people they affect, there is clearly a big difference in the type of impact they can make. $2000 given to the Make A Wish foundation can help a terminally ill child (who has had the best medical care available) go to Disneyland before they die. It could provide a tenth of the cost of training a guide dog so a blind person can have independence and a higher quality of life. But that same amount of money spent on vaccines, antibiotics, malaria nets or even food, could probably save the lives of multiple people.

The effectiveness of the charity should be a consideration. Some charities spend most of the money they raise on administration and fundraising costs, with very little of the money actually being put to a useful purpose. These costs are necessary to enable the charity to do anything, but ideally, I’d want most of the money to actually be used to do good.

My final consideration are the ‘side effects’ of the charity. For instance, PETA funds the Animal Liberation Front, which is committed to using violence to advance the cause of animal liberation. Greenpeace sometimes goes over the line with dangerous and violent tactics to stop whaling and logging operations. And many charities provide services with religious overtones. The help they give people comes with the attached string of having to convert to a different religion. And even where that isn’t required, many are doing immense harm by spreading misinformation about HIV and condom use and by preventing access to any form of birth control.

How do you balance all these tensions? Which charities do you support?