Americans Are Amazingly Generous, But...

This post was going to be a simple request to hit Ace's tip jar to keep him in shelving supplies and jerky-making equipment. And maybe even buy a copy or three of The Deplorable Gourmet, 100% of whose profits go to two carefully vetted charities! But as usual, it morphed into something else...

By most measures Americans are among the most generous people in the world. The data available are a bit weird, sometimes reporting Indonesia, Kenya and Ukraine at or near the top, so they are perhaps suspect. Draw your own conclusions!

But it is undeniable that America is deeply invested in the welfare of those among us who need help, and it is a testament to American Exceptionalism that we give freely and often to the vast number of charitable endeavors that purport to help those in need. And anecdotally? We help strangers far more than most other countries. From stopping to help fix a tire, to lifting some heavy groceries into a harried mother's car, we like to help!

Inevitably however, that generosity is seen as a vulnerability, and some charitable organizations are nothing more than a vehicle to funnel money to venal and acquisitive freeloaders.

Charity Watch seems to be doing good work in ferreting out the bad apples, and even the charities that do good work but aren't efficient, wasting too much of their donor's money on non-charitable expenses.

These Nonprofits Pay Some Executives Up to $8.1 Million in Compensation
Sure...that is clickbait, and a pretty good one too! Does Memorial Sloan Kettering really need to pay its president $8,104,960? Their revenue for that year was $6.6 billion! Maybe...maybe not. But it is certainly an impressive number!

I think many Americans, including this humble writer, prefer to think of their charitable contributions as going directly to the scientist in his lab, or the volunteer buying supplies for a food pantry helping flood victims. That is a romantic view, and one that I suspect most of us do not really believe. Any organization of a certain size needs professional managers to create and maintain the process that takes the donated funds and converts it to effective behavior, whether that is scientific research or delivering food or helping with the medical bills.

It's when the charity seems to have crossed over that line between "Nonprofit" and "Profit" that it becomes distasteful. There is a saying about the missionaries who went to Hawaii: "They went to the islands to do good, and they did right well!"

Does Sloan Kettering do good work? Of course! Is it as efficient as it could be, and are salaries in line with other equally competent but less famous medical centers? That's a tough one. I have donated to them in the past, and I might in the future, but it is not reflexive...as Ronald Reagan famously said, "Trust, but verify!"

None of this means that we should give less. I would rather give, with the understanding that some of my money is going to be wasted, and maybe even stolen (Clinton Foundation anyone?), than not give.

posted by CBD at 12:00 PM

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