The Next Time You Think About Donating Money To These "Do Good" Causes

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kurtfaulk

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I asked Bob Keating, a superb young investigative reporter who had just started working with us, to look into this for a story. The assignment was simple — all this money had been raised, where was it going, was it actually doing good?

He discovered it was not doing good, but, horrifically, unimaginably, the exact opposite. The Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu, until then deadlocked in the war, was using the money the west gave him to buy sophisticated weapons from the Russians, and was now able to efficiently and viciously crush the opposition. Ethiopia, then the third poorest country in the world, suddenly had the largest, best equipped army on the African continent.

By this time we had all seen the pictures and TV footage of Bob Geldof, the figurehead of Live Aid, bear hugging and playfully punching Mengistu in the arm as he literally handed over the funding for this slaughter. It was on TV now alright, but as an endless, relentless reel of heroic Bob Geldof highlights. He drenched himself in the adulation and no one begrudged him it, until our investigation exposed the holocaust that Live Aid’s collected donations had help perpetrate on the Eritrean independence fighters.

Most damningly, Keating reported that Geldof was warned, repeatedly, from the outset by several relief agencies in the field about Mengistu, who was dismantling tribes, mercilessly conducting resettlement marches on which 100,000 people died, and butchering helpless people. According to Medicins Sans Frontiers, who begged Geldof to not release the money until there was a reliable infrastructure to get it to victims, he simply ignored them, instead famously saying: “I’ll shake hands with the Devil on my left and on my right to get to the people we are meant to help.”



this is only one example. i'm sure you'll find many more. look at the haiti debacle.

the next time you want to give up your hard earned money you better make sure that the money you're donating will actually get to the people you're trying to help with your donation. impossible to do in the aftermath of whatever tragedy in the world the news media decides to tell us about.

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1maGoh

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The army every year does a donation drive for various charities. I can't remember what the name of the drive is now. Anyway, there's was a big booklet with all the charities and it would have a brief description along with some other info. One of those pieces of info was the percentage of donation that goes to administrative costs. Most were under or barely over 2 digits (7 - 11 % ish). Some were outrageous. The John Wayne Foundation was like 51%. I wish I knew where to find that kind of information now.
 

fearsomefour

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There are ways to find out what percentage goes to “their work” and what goes to costs.
I used to give money. I don’t much anymore.
If I want to get involved in charities they are usually local ones and I give to their physical needs or volunteer and give time.
There is a local one here that assists kids just coming out of foster care who don’t have any family or security blanket.
Dropping off several bags of toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, socks, shoes and prepaid bus passes etc. isn’t exciting but at least I know where that is going.
 

RamFan503

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Stu
We generally support locally. Our restaurant made a policy of only giving to youth sports. The thought was that in the era of pudgy gamer kids, we wanted to give to what would get them out of the house and physically active.

And before we give to anything, we look into what percentage of the money actually reaches its target. And if they can't or won't tell you? Fugetaboutit.
 

Elmgrovegnome

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I'm glad to see the Facebook charities fade away. Once wore got around how they work, people stopped giving. They were basically like a charitable prescription. They'd withdrawal the amount donated four on your bank account monthly!
 

Corbin

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I absolutely won’t give to charities. It’s a horse and carrot scam. List in 2017 of charities that pay their CEO’s over 1 million dollars?
98CDCDB8-3CB0-4B6C-8D55-2422DF32A69A.jpeg


This is not including salaries, perks or any other outrageous salaries of the top executive members of these so called charities.
 

Mackeyser

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I found one I like. Charity:water

they segment the charity into admin and field. They solicit corporate donations for admin purposes so that all the public donations...100% go to building wells and water systems around the world. They publish GPS coordinates and each project’s progress can be inspected online.

There are others, but yeah. Giving can be very tough to do