Donor Education

Posted on May 5, 2010 at 8:27 am

I received an email from a philosopher recently with a link to his article An Appeal to Aid Specialists in which he makes a strong appeal to aid specialist to help non aid experts understand aid and make good funding decisions. From the recent 1millionshirts controversy it’s obvious that despite our best efforts, not enough accurate information is reaching the average donor.

For any of you that are regular readers to this blog you will know that my entire focus is donor education. But it’s not easy for four reasons:

1. Good donorship is not sexy, we have a hard time catching mainstream media attention.
2. What we have to say is often not what people want to hear, what is good for the donor is often not what is good for the aid recipient.
3. Sometimes aid isn’t the answer.
4. It’s complicated – there is no silver bullet, no solution always works, and there are hundreds of unintended consequences.

Having said that, I agree it can be difficult to find clear, useful, and easily accessible information. Right now most information is only in blogs which are difficult to navigate and information quickly gets lost or scattered. Therefore, when I return from my work in Haiti in early June my plan is to create a website where donor friendly information is easily accessible (funding/sponsorship welcomed, thus far everything has been funded out of my own pocket which is not sustainable).

In the meantime if you have a specific organization you’re interested in funding, I suggest trying The Charity Rater. This system was created specifically to help the average donor evaluate a charity before giving. The Charity Rater does not provide a quick and easy answer and it does require time and effort on the part of the donor. Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy answer, there is no silver bullet, and donor decisions DO matter.

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