Hi Dan,
Nice to see this thread/post.
While giving to the needy or for a cause, we need to be careful. There are quite a few organisations who collect money and spend it more on themselves, as 'salaries' and 'admin. expenses' etc. So while we feel good about making a contribution to a cause, the same money can go a long way if we take more time to check upon the organisation we contribute.
Learnt this the hard way. Once I made a contribution that called for saving the life of a child for cancer treatment. The photo of the child was also printed in the advertisement, along with the name of the hospital etc. I made a contribution, after which I was put on their mailing list, and they being 'professional' they were good enough to send me a copy of their annual accounts. This was an eye opener for me :
Of the contribution received, over a crore (about 200,000 USD) was being set aside for 'setting up an office building' They had much more of the funds under 'reserves' (the interest of which would also no doubt help to earn revenue for the cause, but also to pay for the salaries and admin. expenses) Was the full money contributed by donors used for the intended purpose.? The answer ofcourse is no.
Reflecting on this, I came to the conclusion, it is better to give charity to an anonymous (unknown person) who is badly in need of it, so that the full money can be used for the intended purpose. A handicapped or an aged person sleeping on the foothpath, to buy food for such, rather than give money.
BTW, I have an habit of doing my bit while starting my day. There is a site called the hunger site dot com (remove spaces) on which if you click on the donate button, the sponsors donate a cup of food to the homeless / hungry.
Being skeptical by nature, I do go out and check the bonafides of the organization, which I did on Wikipedia, but though it is for profit one click per pc (IP address I presume) per day is counted by advertisers who jointly donate a cup of rice.
Their results page gives the details of clicks per day/month/year and the food donated as well.
My two bits worth.
Most money given to any organizations it lost money. They steal it, cheat with calculations, have to give money to radical groups to get into some places or just spend it with good wills and finally some people in exactly the place which need it just take away the presents and sell it with there own profit.
Happens every where and at any time.
So how to ship around such bandits, and they are all around; even in the governments: and bring the goody's to the one who really need it?
Ideas are more than welcome.
DanPickUp
