On donor apathy

There is a widespread wave of donor apathy. Wellfare organizations are very painfully aware of this apathy as they constantly ask donors to help in what seems to be a never ending wave of calamities and emergencies. Take as an example the most recent famine in the Horn of Africa.

I read an explanation given in an interview that said that people cannot handle big bad news. The interviewee said that people need the big bad news broken down into small pieces so they can grasp the severity of the problem. This implied to me that we are all small children that have to be told that 30,000 or 300,000 or some other large number is like "all the students in your classroom, but many, many times over". The same language elementary school teachers use with their students. I do not agree. I think we can do better than that.

There are possibly many reasons why people are not responding to these requests for help. The current financial crisis being a very likely strong driver to more recent trends in donor non-responsiveness.

But I will advance that one of the main reasons why people are disconnecting and not responding to requests for help money is the historic absence of meaningful feedback. When was it the last time that the non-profit of your preference sent you any information on the effectiveness of your donation? How many people were saved from starvation per dollar given? I do not want to reduce human lives to deaths/dollar, one can pick a number of measurements, but, maybe more generically, "how far did my dollar go"? I cannot recall one single instance of such feedback.

And when financial statements are published they are pure and simply accounting documents of the exact same type you see coming out of certified accountants hands as they audit a for-profit firm. These financial statements do NOT talk about the pain that was alleviated, as if that was inconsequential.

I do believe that people, in general, do not give as a "tax reduction" solution. Those who do yes, they probably give, forget and really don't care as long as the IRS thanks them. But that is a different ball-game than the rest of us.

The rest of us want to help to alleviate pain in others. The rest of us want to see the smile back in the eyes that once only shed tears. When the rest of us does good we feel a sense of well being as we see the results of our giving. Humans do thrive in this sense of well being. It is only human and part of the dynamics of giving, doing good and feeling good. And that is healthy!

The wide majority of NGOs, small or large, ignore the donor! They treat the donor like a cash register. Once they get the money, there is no contact, no feedback, except for more money.

I wonder then what else do these NGOs think is the cause of donor apathy.

On the effectiveness of aid

The following comments may sound like heresy, but I feel an urgent need to make them.

I would like to highlight what has been written again and again, for decades, not only in respected internet articles, but also in many books by many respected authors. Many titles are readily available in bookstores, libraries and on-line bookstores.

And that is, the shocking truth that - aid does not work!

People with good hearts recognize this reality and stop giving UNLESS they know exactly where the money is going and IF and HOW it is doing any real good to anyone.

But, if you are surprised by this statement, let us take a look at just one of the reasons brought forward by people who have taken this topic to heart. This particular reason is perhaps the most insidious!

In numerous cases, including the very recent one in the Horn of Africa, aid cannot work because of the destructive collection of our own governmental policies that do contribute, if not even create, these calamities in the first place. I find it unconscionable that countries (as homework I leave it for the reader to find out which ones) will not buy grain from farmers in the countries they are trying to help. These countries require that the grain be their own, home grown. The so called "assistance grain" cannot be bought from local farmers. This policy, in effect, puts farming people out of work and many more into the famine roll. Since these policies have been in operation for decades, the damage we are now trying to curb is decades old.

And so, the result is that we give to try (the operative word here is TRY) to compensate for the damage done by our own countries laws. We cannot compete with this situation and so we stop responding to requests for aid.

It is urgent that all of us do read about "why aid does not work" or "cannot work" whichever way you want to say it, and when voting time comes, place our votes wisely. For the wellbeing of those we are so eager to help.