When you buy something for yourself, you probably spend hours shopping around for the best deal on the highest quality product. Some of you may even desire to know how a brand operates as a company. However, when we donate money to one of the countless charities out there, most of us don't conduct such research. We have absolutely no idea about where that money goes to, what it buys or who it helps. At least that is the case for the majority of charities. Perhaps you should start to take a greater interest in the winding path that your charitable donations take, because many of them may lead to dead ends.
You really should ask the question: will my donation to this charity actually help the people or cause? Sometimes it makes matters worse. For example, many charities help African people install water pumps to deliver clean water to their communities. Money has been invested over the past 20years to install a total of 60, 000 pumps across sub-Saharan Africa. However, today 40%of those have failed to work at some point. They have been left there, like expensive but useless decorations.
One of the least effective means of giving is when charity sends endless shipping containers full of material goods to underdeveloped nations. For instance, Kenya imports more than 100, 000 tons of clothes from global charities each year. The issue is that these mountains of regularly imported clothes have completely destroyed local textile industries, which have previously supported local economies.
Ultimately, to whom and how much you give is your choice. It is important to provide highly specialized services instead of material goods. As a general rule of thumb, the more your donation matches the need of the receivers, the better it will be for the long-term prosperity of those you want to help.
