Beth Kanter is one of my heroes and she’s one of the reasons I am on Twitter. Today she asked me to blog or tweet about the BlogHer Myanmar giving effort. And I didn’t. And I felt like a total jerk because, dude, it’s BETH KANTER. And she’s amazing.
But it’s too soon for me to give any money, or ask others to do so. Global Giving has not chosen a recipient yet for Myanmar funds. If you look at their Myanmar page, there is no recipient listed. I confirmed by calling them. Eventually they’ll pick out a recipient organization who’ll provide aid to Myanmar, but there is no chosen organization yet. If I give now, my money will just sit with Global Giving. I might as well have it sit with me while I review NGOs and not pay the 10% fee to Global Giving.
There is another reason not to give money too soon. Some disaster relief NGOs will collect money for an emergency in a location where they have no established presence and if they receive enough, they will start an operation there. If they don’t receive enough money, they’ll just donate the money to another NGO. (Usually after taking their own overhead). It’s a pretty standard practice. If you go to the list of NGOs accepting donations for Myanmar, you’ll see that many of them have no current presence on the ground.
So, by donating now I am at risk for moving it through two pass-throughs – Global Giving and a second NGO before it goes to a group which is operational in Myanmar. (To be fair, I don’t know what Global Giving’s rules are – they may not allow a non-operational organization to receive money. Their website doesn’t make it clear.) [Edited to add: The COO of Global Giving commented on this post, and linked to their due diligence policy, which explains their criteria for selecting organizational partners.]
The best way to give, in my opinion, is to check out NGO websites until you find one that already has a presence in Myanmar, and give to them. I suggest World Vision. Yes, they are faith-based to a somewhat creepy degree, but they have been in Burma since 1958. I’ve worked with them in several locations, and they are very professional and run excellent programs.
(Oh, and here’s my social media thought: turning down a request like Beth’s from someone you respect is nearly impossible. I have work to do tonight, but I had to put this blog post up first, just to live with myself.)
I understand where you are coming from and your good advice, but I have a great trust in Global Giving capacity to get the money to project that is in country.
As per comment on my post, the CEO of Global Giving said that the project partners page would be up this morning or today.
http://tinyurl.com/5a9syr
Thanks for reading, and for hearing my perspective.
I think you have trust in Global Giving because you have met the individuals involved and therefore have knowledge of their skills and good faith. There website, however, does not give any information I can find on their methodology for choosing recipient organizations. It doesn’t demonstrate their skill set to me.
I am familiar with your work, and could substitute your judgement for my own, but a lot of people are not going to be willing to do that, and I am not sure we should ask them to.
Looking at the Global Giving site, I think Alanna is right not to trust them. One of their listed projects is with International Medical Corps, who has no presence in Myanmar.
I am also suspicious of the Global Giving relationship with Many Futures, Inc. Why did they give them 1.5 million dollars?
(sorry to make this anonymous, but I fear backlash)
Anonymous – thanks for commenting. I’m sorry you “fear backlash” – I think this is a pretty friendly community here.
You are certianly right that IMC does not currently have field presence in Myanmar.
Hi folks – just thought we’d jump in here to clarify a few things.
First, As of this morning, we do have the general fund and two projects. We are continuing to pursue additional projects run by more “local” organizations. As you all know, communication with folks in Burma is a bit tough right now. I trust that the confidence/trust level of the author is cleared up, since I believe she used to work at IMC and fundraises for them.
To address a couple of additional points that have been made:
– The website does, in fact, go into detail about the due diligence process we use here here. I hope this helps.
Finally, the information about the relationship between GlobalGiving and Many Futures is described right here
Donna, thank you so much for posting! I’m sorry I couldn’t find the link on your process before; it’s great information to have and does indeed resolve my concerns about needing to trust the judgement of your organization. Just to be totally clear, I was at no point trying to denigrate your organization or your mission. I’ll edit my post to include your link.
As for International Medical Corps – I did indeed used to work for them, and I believe they are a really good organzation. But our anonymous friend is correct – they don’t have an office in Burma and I am not sure how they intend to get relief in. (I have not talked to anyone at IMC about this.)
I’ve got IMC’s donation badge on my blog at present, as well as one for Fischer House, an Alzheimer’s charity. From time to time, I rotate other organzations in. No one has ever donated, though, so I am not sure it is relevant.
If you want to help people in Iraq or Afghanistan, give to IMC, hands down. Burma…maybe look elsewhere.
Thanks for this post. I was thinking about giving to aid relief through AmeriCares, but your analysis seems correct. I too will hold out a little longer for better information.
http://www.momocrats.com
Kady,
It’s definitely worth making sure your money is as effective as possible. It looks like 100,000 people died in Burma. We should all be giving what we can, in the best way we can.
There are several NGOs you can give to right away including World Vision, International Burmese Monks Organization, and Save the Children. All of these have in-country presence and will be able to get aid in.
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