TV naturalist Chris Packham said pandas might not be worth saving. Mark Wright from the World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the many who disagree.

What do you think? Read the whole article: Should pandas be left to face extinction?

Either way, in the light of Time to Start Giving, I’m going to add the WWF to my list of regular donations.

In particular Nick warns religious givers, who tend to donate more than the non-religious, that merely sharing your religious label does not mean the charity makes good use of the money you give them. He gives examples of an inefficient Christian charity and Jewish and Islamic charities that contribute to extremism and violence.

The column also gives advice: he suggests some charities, religious and secular, and he mentions organisations like GiveWell that help guide the small-time donors, same site that Peter Singer mentioned. And currently serving blank pages for me. I hope this is because their servers are overloaded by demand?

In particular, advice on what to avoid:

Today, however, much giving remains impulsive and inefficient. When people get a call out of the blue asking them to donate to firefighters, they may imagine the caller is a volunteer; instead, he’s probably a paid fund-raiser, who will take much of what you give.

“Chuggers” — short for charity muggers — who stop people on the street likewise often work for fund-raising companies that swallow much of any donation. When people receive address labels or a key chain from a charity, they’re more likely to write a check — but that’s a terribly inefficient way to raise money.

A column is limited in length — that one is 785 words — so he shares a couple more thoughts on his blog in Religious Donations Going Awry (just under 500 words, you could read just that, if you like). His blog is also where readers respond with comments, some of which are very insightful.

But one of the basic problems is this: people give to organizations that ask, and those that ask are often the least efficient. An aid group may find that if it spends $200,000 on a fund-raising firm making cold calls, it’ll gross $250,000 for a $50,000 profit. That’s worth it to the aid group — but for you as a donor, it’s not very appealing to know that 80 percent of your donation is going to a fund-raiser.

But don’t let this discourage you from contributing: inefficient contributions are good, efficient and impactful ones are simply better!

I’ve decided this is the year I start giving — my charitable contributions until now have not been significant. There were a couple of things encouraging me lately, I must confess the thing that finally pushed me over the threshold was a silly little tax thing, i.e. selfishly motivated.

The tax form I had to fill in permits a deduction for charitable contributions. I’m told I can fill in a certain number there even if I didn’t make a contribution, since the authorities don’t challenge the numbers, don’t insist on proof, unless they’re large enough. Except, I have this honest bone in my body that insisted I fill in a zero there. It left me feeling cheated since most other people aren’t that honest (aka stupid). The simple solution? Actually donate to charity so that I can honestly deduct it from taxes! (Note: I’m not in South Africa anymore, I don’t know what the South African tax policies are.)

So yes, I will be giving money away so that I will no longer feel cheated. And I will be giving away much more than I would save in taxes if I simply fill in that small number every year.

Other things also contributed towards this motivation, I won’t share them all. There’s the simple hedonistic desire to do good, of course. More than a year ago I blogged about Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save. All talk and no action on my part. But seeds take some time to germinate and grow, more so to bear fruit.

Social influence (peer pressure!) helps. Blogging about making contributions intends to encourage others, and also serves as a public pledge to help motivate myself. (Note to self: maintain caution to avoid turning it into a “look how great I am for giving money away!”) For my first small donation I’m considering a wikipedia contribution, also as a result of social influence: Cobus van Wyngaard recently tweeted:

OK, finally made my yearly donation for wikipedia. #keepitfree Donate here: http://bit.ly/9lGuFr

Tax-deductibility information for Wikipedia donations can be found on the Wikimedia Foundation’s Deductibility of donations page. South Africa isn’t listed, but that’s not a good reason for not also contributing. Every little bit helps.

Now is thus also the time for me to start researching what else would be good and effective things to contribute to. I’ve heard great things said about microfinance for example? NickKristof retweeted an extract from his article:

RT @DavisKate “Charity is limited, capitalism is not. To change the world we need market-based solutions” http://nyti.ms/c9JvCr

That was an enticing tweet, as I was busy pondering the problems of capitalism. The nyti.ms link presented me with a page that insists I log in. I found that following the link from a Google search for the title was an effective workaround. Oddness. Nick presents the case for microfinancing in the frame of a solution to extremism and terrorism: Here’s a Woman Fighting Terrorism. With Microloans.

More thoughts: a friend of mine always does his giving to local South African charities that have children as beneficiaries. He does not make contributions to big in-the-public-eye causes, as he feels they get lots of money already. (That was with reference to Haiti.) Local giving has the additional motivation of making a positive difference in your own community, so you can actually reap some benefits yourself, or less selfishly framed, more easily observe and recognise where the needs are and what contributions make the biggest difference.

In my case, I’m still keen to give to charities active in Africa, South or not, since irrespective of where I lay my head at night, much of my heart still lies there.

What do you do?

One of them was an interview with Peter Singer about his book The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty. He challenges the “western world” about its apparent apathy towards poverty.

In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Peter Singer details how twenty-six thousand children die each day of preventable diseases and poverty worldwide, and contrasts this toll with the public’s moral outrage over the blackest days in our history, such as 9/11/2001. He talks about the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth regarding the poor, and questions why most Christians today have seemed not to make ending world poverty a priority, instead focusing on issues such as abortion and homosexuality, which are not mentioned by Jesus. Singer argues that when people in affluent societies value even small luxuries more highly than saving the lives of the world’s poor, that it is morally equivalent to standing by when one could easily save someone from drowning.

He acknowledges the psychological differences, but argues for equivalence with regards to morality/ethics. (Seeing someone drowning in front of you is in your face, whereas poverty is typically on the other side of the world.)

That’s something about Europe, or America, or the developed world in general: these nations are typically quite out of touch with what real poverty looks like, or what it feels like. Cinema and TVs show images, good movies evoke emotions, but it’s a two hour experience of something “exotic”, then it’s over.

Of course, “back home” (Cape Town, Stellenbosch) most of us are probably also shockingly out of touch, considering the fact that real poverty is within walking distance there. (In Stellenbosch, it’s even within rich-folks’ walking distance: only 2km. Perspective!)

If you’re curious, go read the synopsis, or listen to the podcast. Maybe read his book (I’m considering it). Check out thelifeyoucansave.com, or GiveWell. For some ideas challenging Singer’s apparent simplification of the matter (referring the drowning-person example), there’s some debate in the comments on the Point of Inquiry site. Then come share your thoughts!

In what ways do you currently contribute to charitable causes? What other ways might you investigate in the near future? And how do you feel about the suggestion raised in the podcast, that in some ways Peter Singer, an atheist, could be considered “a better Christian than most Christians”?

Through Elana Meyers foundation, JAG, www.songo.info is raising funds for the construction of a BMX track in the Stellenbosch Township through donors buying virtual kilometers of the 950 kilometers. These are to be ridden by current World Marathon Champion, Christoph Sauser and South Africa’s own golden boy, Burry Stander. The proposal includes the track, bikes, helmets, a storage container, clinics and maintenance.

The cost of one such kilometer is R1000.00 (currently just over $130)

• If you decide to make a donation of less than R1000.00, we would love to give you a write up on the blog (http://www.songo.info/)
• If you decide to by Kilometres, we would love to write on the blog about it as well as send you a virtual certificate showing the amount of kilometres you have purchased.
• If you donate R10 000.00 or more we will give you a limited edition, signed, UCI World Champion, Christoph Sauser riding top (Photographs attached-we only have a few).

Partner with songo.info and the JAG Foundation, in building the future, in building a world class BMX track for the children of the Kayamandi community.

Simply follow this link to the JAG Foundation website, fill in “Songo” in the reference block, and follow your track building contributions on the blog. Buy your kilometer now, buy your kilometer here.

Help us to virtually complete the 2008 route of the ABSA Cape Epic. For more information please visit www.songo.info

Regards
Ruth and Elana

Elana Meyer
elana@jagfoundation.com

Ruth Bird
songo.info@gmail.com

So now you have three courses of action to choose from: (a) go make a donation, (b) spread the word, especially to those that may be interested in this project, (c) discuss!

More photos of Kayamandi on flickr.