LOGICal eMOTIONs

Why I Support Very Few Charities

// December 22nd, 2007 // Brain Dump, Logical Emotions

‘Tiss the season where every single charity in existence attempts to guilt us into giving over our hard earned cash. Some do it quite well, others not so well, and some simply have a large following of generous people who believe in their cause.

I was sent a link to The Miniature Earth Project yesterday which shows a little video displaying the breakdown of population if the world’s population could be reduced to only 100 people. It ran through how many would be men, how many would be women, how many would be starving, how many would have an internet connection, etc. etc.. I’m sure at some point we have all seen a version of it somewhere and it is quite interesting yet sad as a commentary on the human race..

After doing some digging on the site to see what it was all about, right on the main page there is a link to a standalone version of the movie which you can buy for $5. On the page it takes you to after you click the link it goes on to explain:

This project is maintained by only one person, the 5 USD contribution to download a standalone version, will help to cover the website maintenance costs and for each dollar spend 10cents will help to fund a social project.

WHAT?! Ok, so lets do some math here. Say 1000 people actually clicked through to get the standalone version of the movie and “donated” $5 via PayPal. Those 1000 people just paid the site $4500 to cover maintenance costs whereas only $500 goes to fund a social project…

I spend a whopping $100CDN per year on Tully.ca which covers hosting and domain. I don’t run this as a charity site or a non-profit yet I still donate my time and experience to keep it running, so one could reasonably expect some of the work done on a 4 page website (miniature-earth.com) to be donated, right? It would take me 45 YEARS to justify $4500 in site maintenance costs, yet somehow this “charity” site can justify 90% of revenue to go towards “website maintenance costs”. Unbelievable.

See, if you are running an actual business, sure 10% of revenue is quite generous and the world would be a dramatically different place if more companies donated such an amount, yet when a charity only kicks in only 10% one begins to wonder about their motives.

I can appreciate that there are certain costs which come into play when running a charity, yet when those costs are upwards of 90% of revenue, I’m sorry, I don’t care what you are supporting – clearly there are some priorities out of order somewhere within the organization.

Likelihood of Donation Based On % of Revenue Marked For “Good Deeds”

• 10% to 20% – I don’t trust your organization
• 20% to 40% – Likely a large global organization, yet I would need to see proof of expenditures before donating
• 40% to 60% – Definitely worth looking at
• 60% to 90% – Clearly have priorities in the right order, would likely donate
• 90% to 110% – Would donate with no questions asked because the right people are making it happen

Now, for me there are other criteria which come into play (ie. religious affiliation, personal values/ethics/morals alignment, etc.) yet at the outset that is pretty much the scale I use when deciding who to support. So would I support Miniature Earth Project? No, simply because they assign too much to administration (in this case “website maintenance”) which sets off warning bells in my head. But would I support an all volunteer organization who manages to use a donated space and supplies to run their organization so that they can direct all revenue into their project? You bet. There is leadership, there is creativity, and anyone who volunteers their time is doing it for the sake of the project first.

You’re a charity and you can’t find a sponsor who would love to have their logo plastered on the website for $100 a year, thus allowing you to now put that WASTED 90% of revenue back into your project?! But then again, it could be the reason why you can’t find this sponsor is because you require 90% of revenue to run your website…

It is the season of giving, and you’re right, any amount donated regardless of how small is still a help. Don’t get me wrong, part of future dreams and goals involves significantly helping certain charities, and this year because actual cash is a bit tight, Colleen and I are going to be donating blood for the first time ever (once I’m over this cold, grrrr). It is the gift of life, and apparently it’s in you to give. The other sweet part is that they can’t shave off 90% of my donation and put it towards anything else!

Give this season if you don’t normally do and support something which is committed to supporting something worth supporting.

Oh, and the monetization stuff on the right which suddenly appeared in direct contradiction to me always stating that I wouldn’t do it, etc. etc.? Well, there is the odd thing which I have decided to put on and that any revenue received, 100% of it will be going directly to charity as determined by the readership when there is sufficient to donate. I’m not monetizing the whole site or anything – just the odd thing on the right in that exact area and nowhere else.

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