On charitable donations for Haiti

It occurs to me that some of my better comments appear on other blogs. Via Disqus (which will be added to my new, much-delayed blogs), here is a comment I made on Fred Wilson's blog on the big outpouring of charitable donations in response to the earthquake in Haiti:

I am curious where all of this money will go. It seems like absolutely enormous amounts of money are being raised for Haiti right now (Whole Foods has its cashiers soliciting donations, for example).

Ideally, Doctors without Borders and other respected charities will get to keep some of these donations for future disasters. There is, in a sense, an inefficient market for charity, and organizations ought to be able to keep some of the surge money they raise for future contingencies (and be honest about that). I remember the controversy after 9/11 when the Red Cross planned to use some of the huge amount of money it raised to build blood banks (if memory serves), but public outcry forced them to spend it all on 9/11, even though government aid was already flooding in. I remember hearing about the challenges the Red Cross had in trying to donate all that money.

Haiti, as a perennial failed state, presents challenges of its own. Once the survivors have been pulled from the rubble, treated and fed; once the dead have been buried -- then what?

The editorial cartoon above, by Peter Brookes, is from the Times Online.

Two year-end charitable ideas

Below is a post I wrote on New Year's Eve last year, mentioning two charities you might want to consider for last minute year-end contributions. I'll add a couple of updates on both of them here.

Jim Hake, the founder of Spirit of America, came back as its CEO earlier this year. Spirit of America's main focus now is on fulfilling humanitarian requests by U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan. One example is providing radios that Marines can give to Afghans in remote areas, so these Afghans have another source of information about the world besides their local mullahs. Interestingly enough, a commenter on Fred Wilson's blog recently mentioned that it would be a good idea to provide alternate sources of info to Afghans, but his preferred method, if memory serves, involved some expensive and elaborate infrastructure. Since Spirit of America's requests come from troops in the field, they tend to be actionable and pragmatic, e.g., $18 Kaito KA007L radios. Here's a photo from SoA's site of an Afghan with one of these radios:



Toni Maloney, co-founder of Bpeace, offered this update and request today:

Today's a big day in the non-profit world--as Americans make their year-end tax- deductible charitable contributions by midnight.

So I'll keep this brief and say thank you for supporting us in the past.  You have helped Afghan and Rwandan women create employment--1,748 jobs to be exact. The intended positive consequences of this workforce development is less poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and violence.  Your support brought much-needed sustenance into Afghan and Rwandan households that include 13,742 family members.

By creating jobs, your gift literally keeps on giving.  

If you squeeze us into your giving today, you can donate at www.bpeace.org/donate or send a check to Bpeace, 5 E. 22nd Street, Suite 9J, New York, NY 10010.

Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy 2010!

Toni Maloney
Co-founder and CEO

You can read more on both of these charities below.


Here are two ideas, in the event you're thinking of making a tax-deductible charitable donation for 2008 and don't have a particular charity in mind:

- Spirit of America. Spirit of America fulfills requests for humanitarian aid for locals from U.S. military personnel operating in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa. Some examples have included the provision of wheelchairs for Afghan victims of landmines, water purification technology for Iraqi villages, and solar-powered lanterns for Senegalese. I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Hake, the tech entrepreneur who founded Spirit of America, a few years ago in New York, when he brought with him a couple of Iraqi bloggers (the brothers Omar and Mohammed) he had been working with on a project. What Jim has accomplished with SoA has been impressive. I've also had a chance to meet a couple of Marine officers who have been at the pointy end of the spear, implementing projects with SoA, and what those folks have done has been impressive as well.

- The Business Council for Peace. Bpeace supports women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Rwanda. Recall that in a recent post ("Questioning the Conventional Wisdom about the Benefits of Microfinance and Encouraging Entrepreneurship") we noted Professor Bateman's criticism of microfinance, that it funds small, "30 chicken farm" types of businesses at the expense of the sort of small and medium businesses that produce more jobs and economic growth. We also noted Scott Shane's similar criticism of American policies that encourage entrepreneurship without discriminating among those entrepreneurs with the best potential to build sustainable businesses. I suspect Professor Bateman and Mr. Shane might approve of Bpeace's approach, which is to identify and vet the "fast runners" (entrepreneurs with the best chance of building sustainable small and medium sized businesses) and back them. The graphic above, from Bpeace's website, summarizes the charity's approach. Incidentally, if you are a businesswoman, getting involved with Bpeace could put you in contact with the sort of successful American businesswomen it could be helpful to know. If you can do well while doing good, all the better.

I hope everyone reading this has a Happy New Year.

A charitable giving idea for Veteran's Day

There are a number of charities dedicated toward helping recent veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but less attention paid to the elderly veterans of past wars. This article from the Record represents a noteworthy except. Maybe some of you in other parts of the country will be inspired by it: Donations pour in to support veterans' home happy hour.

The photo above accompanied the article and was credited to Record staff photographer Chris Pedota.

Jim Hake Reflects on 9/11

As I mentioned in a post last year, I had the pleasure of meeting the entrepreneur, philanthropist, and patriot Jim Hake, founder of Spirit of America, several years ago, and what he's accomplished with SoA has been impressive. Here he reflects on the eighth anniversary of 9/11. Worth reading.

Ordinarily, I'd post an excerpt here, but after an hour of trying to format the HTML properly, I gave up. Please click over to the SoA site. I don't think you'll regret it.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Imitates The Onion

Hat tip to Atlantic blogger/FT Columnist Clive Crook for mentioning that development economist and NYU professor William Easterly has a new blog, Aid Watch. Easterly has been somewhat controversial for questioning whether traditional foreign aid approaches actually benefit the world's poor. In a recent post ("And Now For Something Completely Different: Davos Features “Refugee Run”"), Easterly writes about the tasteless event promoted by the flyer above, which apparently took place yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Excerpt:

When somebody sent me this invitation from Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, I thought at first it was a joke from the Onion. What do you think of the Davos rich and powerful going through the “Refugee Run” theme park re-enactment of life in a refugee camp?

Can Davos man empathize with refugees when he or she is not in danger and is going back to a luxury banquet and hotel room afterwards? Isn’t this just a tad different from the life of an actual refugee, at risk of all too real rape, murder, hunger, and disease?

Did the words “insensitive,” “dehumanizing,” or “disrespectful” (not to mention “ludicrous”) ever come up in discussing the plans for “Refugee Run”?

I hope such bad taste does not reflect some inability in UNHCR to see refugees as real people with their own dignity and rights.

Of course, I understand that there were good intentions here, that you really want rich people to have a consciousness of tragedies elsewhere in the world, and mobilize help for the victims. However, I think a Refugee Theme Park crosses a line that should not be crossed. Sensationalizing and dehumanizing and patronizing results in bad aid policy – if you have little respect for the dignity of individuals you are trying to help, you are not going to give THEM much say in what THEY want and need, and how you can help THEM help themselves?