Sunday, February 10, 2013
Tweet of the Week Decision
Going into this class, I felt that issues regarding children were most important to me. Therefore, when I found out that I had $44 to donate to the nonprofit organization of my choice, I immediately considered the Make-A-Wish Foundation. While I did further research into the organization, I found many impressive statistics and touching videos that showed the great difference they are making. However, I could not push the facts about Africa presented by Singer in The Life You Can Save out of my mind. This led me to take my search for an organization in an entirely different direction. After evaluating several charities that work in Africa only to find that they had received subpar ratings on Charity Navigator, I came across The Hunger Project in The Power of Half. Upon looking into this organization more, I was incredibly impressed. The Hunger Project strives not to merely solve problems temporarily, but rather to empower the communities they work in and encourage self reliance through projects that will have long term benefits. Rather than simply deciding what they feel the community should have, leaders of The Hunger Project work with members of the villages to find out what they really need. Additionally, The Hunger Project makes female empowerment a central part of their mission, assuring that women are key members in each decision making process to dispel the patriarchy in these areas. Although you all have some idea of the work this nonprofit does from The Power of Half, I suggest checking out their website at http://www.thp.org/, particularly the What We Do section, including the Intro Video located in the Program Overview. They are truly doing great work that goes above and beyond just offering a quick, temporary fix to hunger. Because they encourage independence over reliance, I will be donating the $44 to The Hunger Project.
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That's real world right there. You had an idea of what you wanted to do, and instead of going with a simple decision, you took the time to utilize what we have discussed, read, and learned, and actually put it to good use. This is reflective of what I had discussed in my post, utilizing what we've learned, and branching out into fields we may have not looked at prior to have taking this class. I suggest we all move forward with the same openness, yes there are organizations that we all know of (salvation army, red cross, etc.,) but that doesn't mean those are the only credible ones that are in need. We must move forward with a philanthropic state of mind.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lot of responsibility being in charge of donating other people's money, but I think you handled it very well with all of your research. So many people have a particular cause they think is worthy, and then donate to any organization claiming to work on that cause. Using Charity Navigator was such a good idea, and I hope we are all this careful when deciding where our $10,000 should go. I think it is so important to all of us that this money not go to waste. Just like the Salwens looked into several nonprofits and interviewed them and discussed extensively about their findings and opinions, I think we should also look very carefully into the charities we consider, instead of automatically trusting the prettiest brochures. When reading The Power of Half, I also was very impressed with the Hunger Project. I love their approach of putting those in need in charge of their own futures and wellbeing, instead of Westerners going in and handing them food, making the people more dependent. Good choice!
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