Individuals are doing it, banks are doing it — faced with the horrific news and pictures from Japan, everybody wants to do something, and the obvious thing to do is to donate money to some relief fund or other.
Please don’t.
We went through this after the Haiti earthquake, and all of the arguments which applied there apply to Japan as well. Earmarking funds is a really good way of hobbling relief organizations and ensuring that they have to leave large piles of money unspent in one place while facing urgent needs in other places. And as Matthew Bishop and Michael Green said last year, we are all better at responding to human suffering caused by dramatic, telegenic emergencies than to the much greater loss of life from ongoing hunger, disease and conflict. That often results in a mess of uncoordinated NGOs parachuting in to emergency areas with lots of good intentions, where a strategic official sector response would be much more effective. Meanwhile, the smaller and less visible emergencies where NGOs can do the most good are left unfunded.
In the specific case of Japan, there’s all the more reason not to donate money. Japan is a wealthy country which is responding to the disaster, among other things, by printing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of new money. Money is not the bottleneck here: if money is needed, Japan can raise it. On top of that, it’s still extremely unclear how or where organizations like globalgiving intend on spending the money that they’re currently raising for Japan — so far we’re just told that the money “will help survivors and victims get necessary services,” which is basically code for “we have no idea what we’re going to do with the money, but we’ll probably think of something.”
If you’ve listened to John and Adam on No Agenda, for a long time they’ve talked about how only a small fraction of the money donated to Haiti has actually gone to help the people. This guy says we need to be more careful about how and to whom we donate to help others around the world.
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Not that I’m always thrilled with the Red Cross, but I did give money to them and specified the Japan tsunami. If you read the fine print, they do reserve the right to money it to other areas, if their goals are met. If you actually read the article, the author even donated money– just as unrestricted funds.
Almost invariably they are marketing companies, selling absolvement. Enough gets through, to keep the contributors milking.
Or, it could mean that on the ground they don’t know what they’ll need, yet.
Not sure why we need to give money to one of the worlds richest countries anyway.
http://i.imgur.com/nuBzs.jpg
My mother-in-law is a tax auditor who specializes in charities, and she says it’s unbelievable how much corruption there is in the charity world. People donate without much thought to what might happen to their money because they feel like they have to do “something”, and it makes them feel better.
I have been getting many calls from different charities lately. Just took one 10 minutes ago for Childhood Leukemia. Yesterday it was the diabetes assoc., As much as I would like to give I am suspicious.
#4. Yes I have heard it said that Japan is the third richest nation in the world, if true it doesn’t seem that throwing cash at them will be a good idea. Or even the best way to help.
Remember Katrina when we turned down offers of help from other countries? Are we that prideful? We could have used some of that given back.
Just some thoughts.
#6 – ok, but the reason that Switzerland donates so much to the Red Cross is because people confuse the Red Cross logo (red cross on a white background) with the flag of Switzerland (white cross on a red background), so most of the money donated to the Red Cross gets paid directly to Switzerland.
Too much of it goes for administrative costs. This is why it takes so long to help anyone.
Not enough money actually reaches the people who need it. Haiti is just a poor country with no real wealth before the disaster. Japan however is a totally self supporting country. With a very respectable GDP. So I would think they will bounce back much faster then Haiti.
They still need help, but they have the ability to help themselves.
I totally agree – when you watch the news, you see masses of newly-homeless Japanese huddling in shelters, getting no help at all, certainly not from groups like the Red Cross. As far as I can tell, only the Japanese military (with the help of U.S. Navy ships sitting offshore) is willing or able to actually do anything about the problem, and they already have their funding.
Fundraisers and Administrators SIPHON OFF MOST OF THE DONATIONS, with very little going to aid victims of whatever disaster the money was raised to help !!! IT IS A SCAM !!!
From a personal perspective the salvation army was one of the most internally corrupt organizations I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Couple that with forcing their christian views as a requirement of receiving their charity and I am left with an “anyone but them” attitude.
Places like the Red Cross have stockpiles of emergency supplies that they have purchased to stand by in case of emergency. When you donate money to them right after a disaster, you are in fact compensating them for the stockpiles, and allowing them to stockpile more supplies for the next disaster.
At least one thing has been cleared up:
It is safer to go through TSA full-body scanning machines than it is to stand inside the core of a Japanese nuclear reactor.
The other thing is that it cost money to ship things any where, including Japan. Yes, charities can be bureaucratic and top heavy, but what other game is there? I would have liked to give directly to a the Japanese Red Cross or some other local organization.
This is a little disingenuous. The article is not saying don’t give money, just don’t give it specifically for Japan.
Agree with Alfred, aka TEAbagger Already.
Red Cross is a worthy outfit, unlike these scam religious pyramid schemes like the Cathllic church.
Simple question:
How much money did Japan send to America after Katrina or 911?
OK Alfie, if you refuse to believe it, it must be false. Fortunately for me, you are my batshit barometer in that if it ruffles your panties it must be relatively sane. Steady as she goes ya crazy bastard. haha
The size of the donations should always be proportional on the size of the impact on a nation’s economy over its resiliency.
The quake in Haiti is still wreaking havoc on the country.
The quake in Japan, not so much…
Yes they have suffered much death and devastation, but its much smaller proportionally than Haiti.
The CEO of the American Red Cross gets paid $500K a year — I’m not sure how much he/she gives to charity.
I would NEVER give money to either the Salvation army, for exactly the same reason as The Tick” or the “American Red Cross” as outlined by “bobbo” and “chuck”.
BTW, Marsha Evens CEO of the Red Cross
earnser, make that, is paid $652,000 plus expenses, 100% medical, six weeks vacation, for life. Which partially explains why only 39% of all money raised goes to actually being used.Has Sean Hannity started raising money yet? I understand he needs a newer, bigger, more opulent plane.
As for Haiti, that evil jerk Tom Cogburn has been single-handedly blocking US aid to that country.
http://tinyurl.com/2ehsbeb
So private donations are the best way to go but, if you give to Haiti, be aware that even the best charities have a real problem with efficiency there. That’s not a reason to withhold compassion, IMHO.
As for Japan — just give to a reputable charity. I think you can be confident that it is nothing like Haiti.
I use
http://charitynavigator.org/
Right now, they have a list of top-rated charities working there.
DO NOT give to anyone who call banks you! Just the telephoning alone eats up much of your donation.
Japan is not the third richest country in the world. It is the third largest economy. Huge difference in what these terms mean.
I believe that those who look at a suffering people and think “oh, they can take care of themselves” miss the point of charity and humanity. Charity probably helps the giver more than the person they help. It cultivates a heart that thinks outward, beyond the self.
It’s not like the Red Cross and give Japan a bill after this is over. You’re not giving money to Japan, they don’t really need it. You’re giving money to the red cross so that money can be paid to organize relief efforts. Pay for fuel and transportation, pay for food, pay for medical supplies and medicine.
It’s not like the Red Cross volunteers can just WALK to japan (or haiti) completely empty handed and expect to help.
# 9 Chuck
I think that’s complete bullshit.
Medics have been using that “symbol” for a century, and no one get’s that confused.
Why would anyone want to “donate” the Swiss anything, and then get them confused with the Red Cross in the first place?
#20 “I would have liked to give directly to a the Japanese Red Cross or some other local organization.”
Throwing money directly at them may not work when there’s nothing to buy locally.
#16, Taxed enough, “But the Salvation Army will make sure 100% goes to Japan, to aid victims, not their organization. They have one of the lowest organizational overheads among all the charities and when they say 100% goes to Japan, to help those in need, they mean it.”
HA! Hate to break it to ya, but they have some corruption issues too. Big time. Have they ever got the wool pulled over your eyes.
>> Skippy said, on March 16th, 2011 at 6:07 pm
>> HA! Hate to break it to ya, but they have some corruption issues too. Big time. Have they ever got the wool pulled over your eyes.
Nonsense.
The Red Cross isn’t perfect, of course, but don’t listen to Skippy’s BS. They have a 91% efficiency rating — not the best, but respectable.
Here are the facts: http://tinyurl.com/a4cyq
#35, I’m not talking about the Red Cross. I’m talking about the Salvation Army.
#28. Fusion- I wouldn’t give a fuck if the Salvation Army worshiped Satan himself..if I knew that 99% of the money went to the victims, they would get my money. It seems you just hate anyone or anything religion based.
This just proves you are an asshole, like any proof was needed.