2023-12-17 17:03:25
Germans’ willingness to donate is not what it once was. The German Donations Council has just announced that only 14 million people in Germany donated anything at all between January and September. There were 16 million in the previous year. This may have something to do with inflation and the economic downturn, but it may also be due to excessive demands.
Alexander Wulfers
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
On the one hand, donating has never been so easy; often just one click on your smartphone is enough. On the other hand, the donation landscape has become very confusing. Reports of corruption or donations leaking away somewhere unsettle people. And then there is the ethical question: Would I rather give the money to the football club in my village, to the war refugees from Ukraine or to the people in Somalia plagued by drought and floods? There are plenty of good causes in our neighborhoods and around the globe. And now, with Christmas, the festival is just around the corner when people think particularly hard about donations – and are also more generous than in the summer. So what should I do if I want to raise a small or large amount for a good cause during the holidays, but don’t know where to put my money?
One person who has long been concerned with this question is the philosopher William MacAskill. He researches at the University of Oxford and is considered one of the founders of effective altruism, a movement that aims to do good in the most efficient way possible. He has some tips on how to choose the right organization for this.
Misleading administrative costs
For example this one. An often repeated mantra when selecting nonprofit organizations is: I prefer to give my money to those who spend as little of it as possible on administration or advertising. After all, my money should help people directly on site, not get lost in bureaucracy. This is well-intentioned, but misleading. Firstly, because it is often not possible to clearly distinguish between what is administration and what is project work. For example, costs incurred in the country in need of assistance are often fully allocated to the project, even though administrative tasks also arise there. At the same time, administrative employees also carry out activities that directly help.
Secondly, the size of the administrative apparatus is simply an insufficient size to measure the effectiveness of an organization. MacAskill compares this to the private sector: “When I buy a new computer, I don’t ask myself how much money Microsoft or Apple spend on administration.” The decisive factor is which is the best computer. “Instead of thinking about administrative costs, ask yourself: How much money goes in and how much good comes out?”
By this standard, the best organizations are not always the ones with the best marketing campaign. Child sponsorships, for example, which are particularly popular in Germany, are a marketing ploy because they suggest that the child pictured in the brochure is a direct beneficiary of the donation, which is not true at all.
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