Charity

[Suggestion Box]

Do you think charities should worry about professionalism, or just meet the bare minimum. In a normal business, you want to go above and beyond, but I'd think in a charity, where clients really only need the bare minimum, going above and beyond is wasteful. Why take one hungry person to fine dining when you could feed 10 the bare minimum?

Should charities go above and beyond, or meet the bare minimum, when serving people in need?

 

[ChristianT]

They should (within their power and possibilities) go the bare minimum for more, while making sure the minimum is sufficient for a normal life rather than simply what domesticated animals would get. Of course, if more homeless people got friskey's and a small bed, that's more preferable than one guy getting a year long stay at hotel Paris.

 

[wanderingone]

Do you think charities should worry about professionalism, or just meet the bare minimum. In a normal business, you want to go above and beyond, but I'd think in a charity, where clients really only need the bare minimum, going above and beyond is wasteful. Why take one hungry person to fine dining when you could feed 10 the bare minimum?

Should charities go above and beyond, or meet the bare minimum, when serving people in need?

Depends on the mission of the charity, the people they serve and what they tell their donors they do with the money.

 

[Jade Margery]

It depends very much on the charity and what they set out to do. One could say the Make A Wish foundation is a charity that goes above and beyond for a few children while other children are starving or homeless. But then, there are charities that devote themselves to feeding and housing children but don't do anything for those who are dying of terminal diseases. I think that so long as the majority of the money spent is actually going towards helping people who need it, and not padding the organizer's pockets, then whether they are helping just a few people a lot or many people a little only matters as far as which ones you feel more inclined to support.

I DO think charities need to worry about professionalism in that they need to make sure that the money they are given is being spent in the most efficient way possible to accomplish the goals they claim it will be used to accomplish. But that just means it shouldn't be wasted. My grandfather once sent a charity some money, and then for the next few years received so many brochures, cards, and informational packets from them that he realized the printing and delivery costs of what they were sending him were greater than the amount he had donated in the first place. So he figured they were wasting the money and he donated to other charities instead.

While some charities exist so that a few people at the top can live cushy lives and eke out some of the donations to the people they are meant to go to, others are simply plagued by bad (if well meant) decision making and management. So in that respect, yes, charities do need to be professional.