As I move around the world it is impossible to avoid noticing that there are many, many people who are living hard and horrible lives. There is a reflexive urge to try and help, to strive to fix a problem, to make lives better. This is a different dynamic from the one off donation of $20 to the guy in the street, (which I believe we do to make ourselves feel better).
I define charity, in this context, as the establishment of a new organisation to address a particular chronic problem, or the sustained support of someone else who is trying to do that.
The founding or funding of a school, an orphanage, nutrition support, water sourcing and purification, literacy education, would all be examples of these noble endeavours. It often appears that with a bright idea, a nudge and some lucre we can make a real difference in the lives of a lot of people. Unsurprisingly, a grand notion, when put in to action, often proves to be much more difficult to execute successfully. I have enormous respect for the many hundreds of thousands of people who apply themselves to help in the medium and long term, and salute their remarkable achievements. My caution is to really, really think through any plan and engagement before committing.
The world is littered with half built schools and clinics, and moth eaten agricultural aid offices, and inspirational climbing gyms for young women in Afghanistan (yes, really). What started as an exciting idea to really help a group of people, after logistics, personalities, agendas, budgets, and length of commitment come home to roost, crumbles all too often. The so called ’planning fallacy’ heuristic generates far too optimistic timelines, and operations based on expectations that are not realistic.
If you are not in for the long game, and do not have a realistic assessment of how much time, energy and money will be required for the foreseeable future, the chances are that the pet project is going to fade away.
In a previous life I thought that complex problems could be solved by smart people who bring passion, commmitment, and a little coin to bear. And, indeed, in some cases this is true. But after spending a month in Haiti right after their terrible earthquake (‘there to help’) my world view completely flipped. During that period, and indeed for years before and after, the island was basically a traffic jam of white Toyota Landcruisers, each with a logo on the door signifying ownership by one of a truly startling variety of aid organisations or NGOs. So very many people there to help the children, nutrition, housing, health, widows, livestock, trade, infrastructure, schools, clinics. And so it goes. in 2022 the country is even more of a disaster; the world is considering ’stepping in’ again.
The inefficiency of an NGO founded by three well meaning Germans that is helping build a house for an old guy is staggering. Multiply that by the hundreds (?) of other projects planned, and the followup to a disaster was a disaster. Plenty of goals were achieved, but along the way there were gross distortions to the local economy, and an unhealthy realignment of incentives to the people who lived there. I remember being up on a corrugated iron roof with a hammer, an incredibly painful place to spend time in that climate, after having paid an organisation for the privilege of donating my labour (voluntourism), being watched by a small group of impeccably dressed young Haitian men. The irony of me paying a lot of money to lose weight via the ’dysentry and dehydration diet’, when there is plenty of labour there that can be hired for a fraction of that amount, was never lost on me. Additionally, plenty of locals figured out that the best way to make money was not to farm, or teach, or make something, or own a shop. But rather, to cozy up to an Org as a driver, or translater, or fixer. The strong incentive was to stop doing what would help rebuild their society, and instead syphon money off foreign aid.
I am glad I went, and did what I did. I ’made friends that are still friends’, and gained a solid stock of cocktail stories. But in retrospect I do not believe that I really helped at all. I have heard plenty of stories at fundraisers, with beautiful people sipping the sparkling, of projects that appear to me to be absurd or impractical or downright counterproductive.
My amateur suggestion is to stay well clear of the urge to found an NGO. Do not contribute to small NGOs, resist the urge to support a good friend’s pet project, stop writing those $100 checks each year, as it will most likely be a very inefficient delivery channel.
Instead, select one of two paths: Spend an afternoon reviewing the stated missions of some of the more than a million (!) NGOs registered in the US. This is a good resource: TheFoundationCenter . Read some press and reviews; evaluate their Form 990 reporting. When you find a large one that matches your goals, throw money at it. Or, make it as simple as possible and give unrestricted funds to desperately poor people. There is a robust body of studies that validate the benefits of this non-paternalistic giving. My favorite is GiveDirectly .