NONPROFIT CHARITIES — HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THEY?

Although there are many negative media reports about natural disasters, poverty, hunger, diseases, and ecological issues, there is also one positive trend: donating to charity organizations. We hear sometimes that rich people donate hundreds of millions for noble causes.

Many celebrities use their fame to draw attention to serious problems facing mankind. Many people with lower incomes also give money to charity. But how much good can actually be achieved with monetary donations? Are they beneficial in the long term?

AGE OF GENEROSITY  

There is an ongoing trend in developed countries to donate money for charity and organization development. “International volunteer organizations are becoming more and more present and wealthy in 21st century than ever before”, says one report. Since the number of wealthy people in the world is increasing, it is expected that this trend will continue in the future.

Some people will have more and more money they will be willing to donate. Also, it is estimated that more rich people will leave a lot of their wealth to volunteer organizations after they die. This is why British magazine The Economist recently wrote that this could be the beginning of a golden era of generosity and philanthropy.

One of the reasons why people are becoming more involved in local events is because it is becoming more and more evident that authorities can’t handle current burning problems. The UN Special Envoy for HIV in Africa stated that political leaders are very inactive, which is one of the reasons why so many celebrities are involving in trying to resolve global health problems.

Whether it’s poverty, illness, pollution, education problems or social injustice, many people, especially the wealthy, “slowly lose patience because state authorities and international institutions can’t resolve or even mitigate these problems,” writes Joel Fleishman in his

book TheFoundation: A Great American Secret—How Private Wealth Is Changing theWorld. In an attempt to change the world for the better, wealthy benefactors often apply methods that brought them success in the business world.  

HOW MUCH GOOD IS ACHIEVED?

Donations to charity organizations have been very popular going back to the beginning of the 20th century. Businessmen such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller used their wealth to help those in need. They found out that traditional charity organizations, although they try to feed the hungry and help the sick, actually don’t address the root causes of problems.

In order to organize more structured local community development and help people in local communities directly, they organized foundations and trusts that were supposed to deal with social problems and finance research on certain pressing issues. Since these days, a few thousand similar institutions have been founded, and at least 50 of them have funds exceeding a billion dollars.

It has to be admitted that these efforts produce good results.

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