Making Your Charity Giving Count

Like many other people, I give money and goods to charities. But how can I make the most difference? The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer gives some good advice. While written from a US viewpoint, much of what he writes is applicable to anyone. [I've turned the US$ examples into £ equivalents, but the figures are from 2015.]

Should I give lots to one or two charities or small amounts to lots of charities?

• Donating to lots of charities gives you the feel good factor.
• But donating £8 or less means processing the donation may exceed any benefit gained.

• Donating larger amounts to a few charities means your gift should have more impact.
• But it's also important to find out what the charity does, and how effective its work is.

Which charity should I support?

• Often we are drawn to helping a specific child on a website, but we may also be pulled by nation, region or ethnic group. 
• But we should not be asking what is the most urgent issue - which not be easily achievable. What we really need to ask is 'Where can I do the most good?'

Make A Wish America makes wishes come true for children who have been through life-threatening diseases or have lifelong disabilities. The average cost of making one child's wish come true was US$7,500 (£5,800). That same amount could have funded malaria protection for lots of families and saved the lives of at least three children and perhaps many more.

Donating to restore sight is more cost-effective than giving to train a guide dog as more people benefit. Other charities which make a big difference are the International Planned Parenthood Foundation and the Fistula Foundation.

Give Directly makes one-off cash grants of about £800 to African families living in extreme poverty. This is equivalent to giving them at least 6 month's income, and in some cases a whole year's income.

In the US you can make tax-deductable donations, which actually means that taxpayers pay for about 40% of donations from high-income people, thus drawing money away from areas of government that do more good than charity work. [Also there seem to be no restrictions on the organisation you donate to, e.g. the National Rifle Association Whittington Centre, which describes itself as America's finest shooting facility.]

In the UK using Gift Aid, you get tax relief when donating to a charity (registered with the Charity Commissioners) or community amateur sports club. A charity is established for charitable purposes only, so must provide a public benefit, and is subject to the High Court's charity law jurisdiction. Political parties are not charities. Gift Aid is currently (2020) set at 25p in the £ if you pay tax at basic rate, there is a different rate for higher income earners. [Again there is an issue over drawing money away from areas of government.]

Look at the charity's revenue. How much is spent on administration (including fundraising)? But bear in mind that this does not tell you everything - how effective is what they actually do?

Give Well evaluates the performance of charities, looking at donations, administration costs and effectiveness of programmes. Some major aid organisations (Oxfam, CARE, International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision) don't make it on to the Give Well list of recommended organisations as they run multiple programs (including advocacy) which are difficult to evaluate.

Poverty Action Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions (e.g. insecticide impregnated bed-nets to combat malaria, de-worming poor children, and cash grants to poor families).

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