Help for help

How do you feel about giving to charities?

Most of you value whatever money you have but also know that some of that could help those who have none or very little. As a result, you give generously your hard-earned to charity.

Generosity is not solely based on one's economic status, but includes the individual's pure intentions of looking out for society's common good and giving from the heart. It reflects the individual's passion to help others

So how do you feel when you find out that for every dollar you give to charity, only 15-20% ever gets to the needy?

If you’re like me, damm furious!

Furious that a multi-million industry rides on community compassion. Furious that the bulk of what you give is providing jobs, income, and benefits for charity employees; that you are supporting an industry liable to expend funds on non-charitable items.

There are many ways of defining business costs, some honest but others bordering on legitimate. How often do we see reports of large amounts of money being diverted from rightful purposes to fund the personal desires of unscrupulous functionaries?

I’m not suggesting that all charities are dodgy but there must be better ways of raising money to help the needy, and that’s why I am writing this article.

I hope that it becomes a discussion trigger amongst our broad reader base for discovering better ways to get the maximum bang for our charity buck.

I belong to an organisation whose primary role encompasses moral development; as a sideline it donates to a large range of worthy needs. It does so most efficiently because fund raising and distribution is secondary to its costed main function; thus the primary key staff can rally many volunteers to assist when needed at no extra overall cost, and certainly at no potential loss to ultimate beneficiaries.

Charitable overheads-offsetting is undertaken regularly by banks and other corporate citizens during times of disaster and natural emergencies; it is not unreasonable that such businesses claim a tax deduction for the donation of that part of their costs resulting from additional charity-management.

This method of benevolent fund-raising might be one of the ways of getting more efficient donations.