Do charity fundraising activities hurt the very people they are trying to help?

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

With all the commotion involving women posting their bra color on facebook supposedly to promote breast cancer awareness, a breast cancer survivor blogged about how this flurry of well-intentioned activity affected her. Worth reading in its…

What color is your bra?

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Yesterday, friends on Facebook started to have posts with just colors: black, seafoam green, peach, etc… I was rather confused until several friends emailed to enlighten me. To raise awareness for breast cancer we were all to immediately post the…

Would you hire a doctor or a contractor whose work was never evaluated?

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Would you want your child operated on by a doctor whose work was never evaluated, even when it appeared that the way the surgery was commonly done may contribute to avoidable illness or death?

Would you risk hiring…

My response to Philanthropedia’s post

Monday, January 4th, 2010

My response to Philanthropedia’s posts which responded to GiveWell’s post Philanthropedia’s report on Microfinance

I was originally directed to Philanthropedia by two people with whom I had discussed the possibility of crowd sourcing charity evaluations.…

New Research on Orphanages

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Last month the New York Times reported on new research regarding orphanages. The study evaluated the previous findings that recommended orphanages be used only as a last resort due to the negative impact institutionalization has on the emotional…

Interesting aid news and debates from 2009

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

On Sundays I usually compile a list of the news stories and blog postings that caught my interest during the week. In reviewing the posts from 2009 I found that six topics had significantly more articles than the others: the…