Why you should avoid donating to large organizations
Disclaimer:
While I caution against donating to large organizations, I do not discourage donating in general. In fact donating to the needful is a noble pursuit and should be encouraged.
Let me start of with a bit of a background
When I started working and earning a salary I wanted to give back to the society even through what I was earning at the time can be considered just peanuts.
Therefore, I thought it would be best to donate some amount to a charity so I went to the UNICEF website and make a one-time contribution (one of the biggest mistake of my life).
That was about 5 years ago, till now I am constantly getting calls from different numbers claiming to be executives of UNICEF and asking for money. Sometimes 4 - 5 times in a single days, even on weekends.
Every time they come up with some sob story about some child in need and asking for contribution.
Here's the problem
Some of you may thing that there is nothing wrong with that, but please read on about two of my experience with charity organizations.
Fake Issues
Many of times the issues for which these people are cold calling everyone are complete fiction.
When I was still studying I had to change my school for some reasons and because of circumstances I ended up in an Non-profit school that has a charity as its parent organization.
On a few occasions our teachers were asked to take us to the studio to record a few calls pretending to be seeking some assistance.
This was my first experience into how the real world works on deception and falsehood.
Sales Operatives
The second incident happened when I was giving interviews for various organizations, when I came across vacancies for sales personnel.
Even through I had no interest in sales I went for the interview because I was desperate at that time. The contract person didn't share any Job Description with us beforehand so I went in completely unaware of the role and requirement.
I was shocked to learn that the company was an outsourcing agency that takes up contracts from charity to collect donations on their behalf.
They would have set targets and commissions for certain durations and were given scripts with high pressure sales tactics.
I was disgusted and left that interview after the initial discussion.
What does this tell us?
From this experience we can understand that these large charity organizations are run for profit with high pressure sale tactics by 3rd party operatives who don't care about the cause but only their margins and sales targets.
With very little actually going to the needy
Here's an article wbir.com "How much of your donation actually goes to help people in need?"
Here's a snapshot from the article for reference:
You can clearly see how this is so problematic
Not only is your data sold so that you can be harassed for money but your money barely goes to any good use.
What's the solution?
Instead of donating to large clarity organizations that will likely to steal the money, give to your local shelter or better volunteer for local community work.
Give money to small organizations in your immediate locality that you have observed to be feeding the homeless or doing actual social work in your area.
It can be a local church or temple or homeless shelter or soup kitchen or community workers.
If you want to contribute to society do it in a way that you can actually see and observe the outcomes.
Avoid these big charity houses at all cost.
