Giving £500 to third world charity - help me decide where it should go please

[moneygiver]

I'm a very regular mumsnetter but using a different name since I don't want some cynic accusing me of being conspicuously generous to gain general approbation .

We are giving £500 to third world charity to mark the G8 summit meeting.

Where should I send it. Who in your opinion will spend the money best (i.e. lowest admin costs, highest proportion of the donation actually reaching the poor). I know there are some damn smart mumsnetters who will have all sorts of information about the efficacy and merits of various charities.

£500 is a reasonable amount for us so I would like to think it would be used to maximum effect.

Would greatly appreciate your input

Cheers
x

intermediate technology is one of my favourites

I'm with Twiglett, Doctors without Borders gets my vote. Salvation Army also has a well-proven track record of well-over 90% of donated monies actually going directly to those who need it.

Any water-aid charity... forget which one I D-Debit to, though, so not much help there (as usual...) Access to clean water is an enormous problem world-wide.

Plan International is a child sponsor scheme where although you adopt nominally a particular child and information is sent to you about that family and you can send them letters and gifts, the money iteself is used to benefit the whole community that they live in being invested in local grass roots projects. You can choose which country of many you would like to sponsor a child in and this is a regular commitment. It is also possible to make arrangements to visit that community if you wish.

i am trying to persuade dh to go and camp out in edinburgh to no avail moneygiver. so watching this thread with interest. we give to wateraid (clean water is a biggie imo) already, but like others i'm a bit dubious about some of the bigger charities in terms of admin cost...think medicins sans frontiere's work is second to none. red cross????

Oxfam are pretty good - 18% on support/admin/marketing/fundraising, etc..
Medecins Sans Frontieres - also 18%.
Plan International - also 18%
World Vision - 25%.
Christianaid - 21%

IMO the larger organisations do use the money more efficiently, i.e. "get more for their money" than smaller organisations. These basic statistics don't really tell the whole tale.

I'm sure you don't need telling to make sure you giftaid your generous donation.

Wateraid - 27.9%

This is the link for the Plan International site PlanUK

Give the money you'd spend travelling to Edinburgh and camping out in Niddrie (which is where they're going to put all the protesters and is, incidentally, the most deprived, poverty-stricken district in all Edinburgh) to charity instead. That's the real difference. The bloody G8 summit isn't even close to Edinburgh - it's 100 miles away - the world leaders won't be watching.

Hello,

high efficiency and very thirsty for funds are:

www.womankind.org.uk/ where

• £15 can reduce the pressure on Ement in Ethiopia to circumcise her daughter by paying for leaflets and videos explaining the harm it can do her
• £25 can help Manuela in Peru improve living conditions for her family by paying for a training course on how to represent her community
• £50 can prevent Sivagana in India killing her next baby daughter by paying for training sessions on female infanticide in her village
• £100 can re-train Sohaila in Somalia, a circumciser, in an alternative job so she can still support her family
• £250 can help Dora in South Africa, a widow, keep a roof over her family?s head by paying for legal aid so her husband?s family can?t take the house from her
• £500 can help Aberash,14, in Ethiopia finish her education (cut short by an early marriage) by paying the set up costs for a training centre in her town

Over in Asia, you can try and direct the money to the highly neccessary mutual womans aid in afghanistan via this group of womenw ith contacts there already:

www.jagritifoundation.org/about_origins.html

HTH, xfx

There are some charities in Indonesia who would love your money! Some of them are here but my personal favourite is the Cleft lip/palate work that is done by Anza. Afaik, all money goes on the operations. For 500gbp, almost 3 children's lives could be transformed, and allow them to join society.

personally I'd avoid Oxfam and all the biggies, a huge huge percentage of their money goes on admin. I would try to look for a local connection to a smaller charity for instance our local church is always after donations for an orphanage in Rwanda that they ahve strong links with/to (??).

Having lived in East Africa and become quite cynical of large name charities, I'd be inclined to send the money to one of the kitchen table charities. These are often one or 2 man bands who are doing their best with limited funds at the source of the problem, literally from their kitchen table. (They won't be driving around in new plate Mitsubishi Pajeros exempt from import tax as it's a charity vehicle.)

This is probably no help whatsoever to you as I don't have any of their details to hand. John Humphries has been publicising a lot of their work recently. Google might throw something up.

don;t want to start a fight but I do get a bit fed up with the "huge amounts go on admin" line. I'm not for a second saying that every big name charity is wonderful,nor am I saying there's no wastage, however, a large amount of the "admin" you are talking about are (the extremely modest)wages for highly qualified professional people who know what they're doing. I would rather spend that money because, in my mind, it is a way of helping ensure that the rest of it is being spent well, targetted where it is needed, in ways that produce results, without discrimination. I don;t know anything about the kitchen table charities in East Africa portree refers to, I am sure there are some excellent ones, but the flip side is that the well intentioned volunteer ethic can often actually be damaging, if it lacks knowledge and professionalism. I also don't think that driving round in a particular kind of car necessarily constitutes a waste of funds

have changed name for this but I wouldnt personally give to oxfam although i have previously. afaik they have huge admin costs and i know for a fact that the people at the top are on almost fat cat wages. i dont think enough of their money actually gets to where it should. only my personal opinion though

just my opinion hatstand

Agree with hatstand. I think voluntary agencies of all sizes can have great things to offer.

btw Scummy, video's in post today 1st cass so hoefully you will have it tomorrow

Someone on MN recommended world vision a little while ago - it was in the context of charitable donations instead of wedding presents but I like the idea of choosing exactly what the money goes towards. That is assuming that it is all kosher! Whoever you choose, though, good on you.

We had the watoto children's cjhoir in at our school and we were moved to tears by their stories. Watoto.com gives more details. I have sponsored a child, as have all of the other teachers, and each class have raised more money again.

aaaargh. sorry this is close to my heart. I don't work for Oxfam but I work somewhere not disimilar. Do you want charities to be able to attract top flight professional people? Or do you want them run by muppets? Charities need to be run by highly qualified people. You might think they are paid "fat cat" wages but I can tell you they are still a lot lower than those same people could earn elsewhere. They need to pay the wages they do to persuade people to work for them and not elsehwere. I can tell you that a lot more is wasted by paying too little, getting people who are simply not up to the job, or people who leave because of the wages, incurring recruitment expenses again and again and disruption to the work. What it basically comes down to is that the money giving public will only "stomach" a certain amount of "admin" costs which effectively means that they think people who work for charities are less deserving of a particular salary than people in parallel jobs in teh commercial sector.

Hatstand - I agree with you completely

sorry if that was a bit of a rant, like I said it's close to my heart - it's a key cause for frustration at work for me. But I shouldn't sound cross with anyone on here. sorry

Interesting point hatstand - perhaps we should consider outsourcing those jobs to third world countries then (where everything else seems to be going) so that Oxfam et al get top quality admin staff at low wages and also contribute to building up economy of poorer nations - India would be a great place to start.

I completely agree with portree too about the one man bands. Their causes are usually local but very relevant and they are personally committed and usually working for free too for a cause they believe in and that has relevance to local people. The downside is that it's often a big hassle trying to find out about them from the UK so it's easier to give to the big charities.

most field workers for charities working in the developing world are recruited locally.