A while ago I read Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save
and it made me think about how I give to charity and whether I could do better
with my choices of worthy causes. However I mostly continued with my usual
charitable donations and was more focused on learning about NGOs to support in
Guatemala because I had become passionate about this beautiful, struggling
country.
Recently I have done some more reading about poverty, aid
and charitable giving partly because the subject fascinates me and partly
because I want to make better choices with my hard earned money. Most of the books & websites are written
from an American and/or European perspective but the concepts hold true for New
Zealand too as one of the wealthier countries in the world.
I’ve been mulling over all the information I’ve gathered in
books and online and it’s not easy to make the ‘right’ choice. These are some
of the questions I’m asking myself as I think about how I might change the way
I give to charity.
1) Which cause? Poverty or environment or animals or ...
2) How many causes? One large donation to one organisation
or several smaller donations to several organisations.
3) Tax deductible? Organisations
that have a charitable status in New Zealand and are tax deductible make the
most sense (¢s) to support. However I have seen very good grass roots
organisations in action in Guatemala run by local people for local people that
are not tax deductible but I know my donation will go directly to their
programmes with no administration costs in NZ.
4) What type of programme? Of GiveWell’s recommended
charities (evidence based, cost effective, really make a difference) only one
is tax deductible in NZ (Against Malaria Foundation). Some of the most effective
charities sound very unglamorous (Deworm the World Initiative anyone?). Also some organisations run multiple
programmes and that makes them more difficult to evaluate e.g. Oxfam.
5) Local, national or international? My dollars would go further in a poor country
but communities thrive when people within a community support each other.
The problem with reading as widely and deeply as possible in
an effort to make an informed decision about where to donate is that it’s easy
to feel overwhelmed by all the issues in our world. I may feel as though I’m giving significant
amounts of money (because I consider it in the context of my work effort and income)
but it also feels as though my money is a tiny drop in ocean in terms of all
the problems to be solved. However I agree with Edmund Burke who said ‘No one
could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a
little.’ It’s like the starfish story, but the results are multiplied because
other like-minded people join in to save the starfish.
I now have a short list of causes. Some of them are
different to what I have previously supported and some of them remain the same.
I think my choices will be more rational and less emotional than before but in
the end I’ll make the best decision I can with the knowledge I have. I need to
stop reading and mulling, and umming and ahhing and just do it.
P.S. Some books I have found particularly interesting,
enlightening and useful and that I will read again are:
Half the Sky and the follow-up to it A Path Appears by
Nicholas D. Kristof
