Flies on Eyes Poverty Marketing - Famine Relief Fundraising and Your Donation
Another natural disaster has struck. Except in this case, it was one that was preventable and could have been planned for. I am talking about the famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. Do you watch TV on Saturday morning or late at night? Ever see those celebrity endorsed ads for international aid organizations with the flies buzzing around the kids with dirty faces and distended bellies? Ever wonder, how international NGO's can support kids on $30/day and still afford TV production ad time? Perhaps you also look at those kids and ask how effective is my sponsor-a-child?
Here's some things to consider BEFORE donating to famine relief:
- Do you want to address the emergency or the systemic problem of food distribution? These are two separate issues that are addressed by two different types of organizations. Understand that outcome of buying a goat or building a water pump or paving a road is very different than sponsoring a child or funding a food program.
- Ask the organization how they deliver their services - are they doing it in partnership with other NGO's/charities? Which ones? What does the partnership look like? Who is being held accountable? How are they going to show you how the money was spent?
- Understand the political situation in the region. I have done a lot of international travel, a lot of the goods that are donated by North Americans for people overseas, does not end up where you think it goes. Is this bad? Depends on your expectations. In many cases, these goods end up in the flea market generating an income for the vendor, even though they were given to that person as an act of charity from someone in the developed world.
- Buying products in-country vs. shipping from overseas... Where should things be sourced? There are several schools of thought on this ranging from Black & White/Yes & No to a more mixed approach of supporting local economy when possible, otherwise bring in trusted items until such a time that an economy can be built...
- Make sure you know what the charity is committing to deliver and over what period of time. Are they saying that they are going to eradicate poverty in our lifetime such as the mandate of UEnd? Are they simply stating that they are there for emergency medical relief and not long-term support like Medicens sans Frontier? Are they a pseudo-government agency with ties to multiple NGO's for long-term stay like Unicef and USAID?
According to the CRA there are over 90 NGO's that operating in the Horn of Africa on the famine crisis. Of those 90 here is a list of some of the organizations we have reviewed for our clients (matched to their individual giving profile). For details about these organizations and to see how they match your giving profile please visit Place2Give.
- Canadian Humanitarian
- International Development & Relief Foundation
- Unicef
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- Doctors without Borders
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Comments
Flies on Eyes
It is the emotional response to a human story, and in this case a photo, that will raise funds. As a former CFRE fundraiser, I always encourage people to thoroughly research how their donation would make a difference, even if it is an organization that they have supported for years. Boards and focus often change.
I had someone in my office recently who did a fundraising presentation asking our company to support his endeavours. He showed me photo that gave me the impression that there was something peculiar happening. It was only as I started to break down the photo and started asking questions, that I was able to learn the truth. All credit to the presenter, in this case, the photo was in part to prove a point as to why I should support his NGO's project.
Oh the pitfalls of philanthropy
Hi Naomi;
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
It is so true how we get sucked into making such important decisions.
I just read a blog post on Charity Navigator about having charities that are dealing with the famine relief state why they should get a donor's support. Needless to say there was quite a lot of polite one-upsmanshipping going on (if that is even a word). Could you imagine the effects that could be generated if these organizations made a coordinated pitch instead of fighting over the "stake in the ground" approach that is being pushed by these marketing campaigns?
I did see an ad that was jointly released with Oxfam, The Plan and a few others, but no-where in the ad did it state which organization was dealing with which part of the project and issue. It reminded me of the United Way campaign that was running in various cities Canada about how the United Way was ending homelessness... somewhat misleading...
Have you heard of how the various Canadian organizations are working together on the famine issue?
Reliefweb
You might want to check out Reliefweb to learn more about the details of humanitarian coordination in the field - in particular the updates from UN-OCHA http://reliefweb.int/. The UN and major humanitarian NGOs do tend to have field coordination mechanisms for needs assessment etc - especially in areas where there are long-term humanitarian situations.
Great Suggestions
Thank you Michelle for this suggestion!
I will definitely keep them on my radar.
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