Transparent Charities – Becoming Informed And Asking Questions

Posted on September 24 · Comments

We have sponsored a child now through World Vision for quite a few years now. Occasionally they send us requests to support other projects. If we can we donate a little extra.

Recently we were asked to give extra money to help with their agricultural programme that supplies seeds, tools and training to help communities develop farming practices to ensure future independent food supply (assuming that the country stays out of war!)

Well, I like the idea of fostering independence rather than a continuous dependence on charity, so I’m quite happy to support such a programme. But I had a few misgivings. They were:

Where are the seeds sourced? Locally or some big business like Monsanto?
Are the farming techniques being promoted regionally appropriate and sustainable or do they rely on chemical fertilisers? In other words are these people being enslaved by big business agriculture?
When WV refers to drought resistant crops, are these crops naturally drought resistant or are they genetically modified?

I waited a while, but this is the response that I received from WV:

Thank you for your email regarding our Seeds, Tools and Training appeal, and apologies for the delay in our response. Please be advised that we had forwarded your queries to a specialist area who had come back with the following answers:
The local World Vision national office will source the seeds. Often this will be from a government agricultural department, and if government resources do not exist then commercial distributors will be used.
Chemical fertilizers are not applied, they’re expensive and outside the reach of poor farmers. Fertility improvement is provided via maintaining ground cover, compost and manure. Contour bund is also used to slow run-off, reduce erosion and capture water into the soil.
Seed is open pollinated, neither hybrid nor genetically modified. Drought resistant crops used include TEF, millet, and even acacia.
Our focus must always be on avoiding dependence and helping sustainable independence. In some circumstances this is easier said than done, and each project will have its own context. There are communities where the politics or the climate is subject to instability, but we believe these communities still deserve our assistance and we do our best to ensure the work we undertake provides these communities with the know-how and belief in themselves to overcome any problems they encounter in the future.

I’m more than satisfied with this response.

It brings me to the point of knowing what we’re supporting when it comes to giving to charity. I had quite a heated argument with family a couple of weeks ago about this. I get surprised sometimes about how strongly against giving to charity people feel. My position is this:

I don’t want to make someone’s life worse by giving, which is why I emailed WV about their agricultural programme.
I don’t mind that charities incur admin fees – that’s just a reality of doing anything in a capitalist world. As long as the charity is transparent and accountable and I can make informed decisions, then that’s fine.
Sometimes we have to just give unconditionally. I’ve read and heard a lot of cynicism about giving to charities. I wonder if this cynicism is an excuse not to feel bad about not giving. While we argue about admin fees and advertising campaigns, people who need help and whom we could help, go without, and to me that’s an issue more important than the bottom line.
Anyone who needs assistance deserves it regardless of geographical location. I don’t discriminate according to land mass.

Anyway, that’s just my thoughts on charities, a topic that’s come up a few times in our life lately. Of course there are other points of view and things I haven’t thought about, as well as permeations on the above like does anyone who needs help deserve it?

What are you thoughts and experiences when it comes to giving to charity?

Have you read these posts?

Category: social issues · Tags: social issues