Full Disclosure for Charities
I don’t give money to beggars; I think it just gives them the incentive to keep begging instead of truly changing their lives.
I may be heartless in this, but you never know where the money is truly going. Is it for food, for shelter, or is it for drugs and alcohol?
Instead of giving your money to beggars why not give the money directly to charities? Here you can think that the money is going to your cause and really making a difference.
Reading this article I found myself agreeing that too often we don’t know where our money is going to with charities and we see glitzy balls but what is really reaching the public? I know that there are some charities who do this already but I really feel that with the internet there is no reason why charities can’t completely divulge their financial information. Revenues, expenses, where the money actually gets deployed. Heck add to this an independent study showing that the money was fairly being distributed on the ground level and you would have confidence in the charity and be willing to give more!
If all charities did open up their books would we be having a fiasco like current one over the spending of British MP’s? Maybe someone in the free press wants to look into this!
May 26th, 2009 at 9:05 am
I tend to agree with what you are saying here. I have run into this far too many times. I have the policy that if someone says they are hungry I will ask them what they would like to eat and get it for them, or donate to stable charities such as UNICEF, Amnesty International,Greenpeace, or the Sierra fun, to name a few, who I have been able to look up there overall donations and incomes more or less on their websites. Just let your finger do the walking as they say. While I think that there is a huge level of satisfaction in being present as the giver I think that looking at the global picture of need, like you have Darren, will give us all a better start and better end. It is something that I am trying to do in all my business dealings. We all have so much, to give a little whenever possible, or as part of any major transaction within your own office/billing structures can make a huge difference and let us all be and feel connected through conscious support to others.
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Again, as noted above, I do agree with you both. If I am asked for money and the reason given is hunger, I will do my best to put that outstretched hand in contact with some very solid and nutritious food. I’ve found that the people who are hungry will accept this kind of charity and are thankful for it; conversely, I’ve had people be picky and demand certain kinds of food from certain kinds of restaurants and have walked away from them because, as the adage says, ‘beggars can’t be choosers’.
In terms of charities disclosing their books, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but registered charities do have to have transparency in their accounting for the purpose of being registered so wouldn’t that mean that their finances, through the medium of being audited yearly, are open to public consumption if so requested?