As we have seen, charities can be harmful by treating their clients as inferior, needing paternalistic help, and assuming the world will always be unequal. However, there are alternatives to this type of charity. Some of these alternatives are analyzing the charities you support and supporting social justice through your government or other organizations.
If you want to make sure that the charities you support do not cause more harm than good, analyze their practices. Read their mission statement and see if they are actively trying to change the inequalities in society. Try to uncover any paternalistic or superiority stereotypes. If you think that the organization is being harmful, you can contact them with your concerns. Instead of just dropping your support, you can let them know what issues you see with their operation and how they could change to make more of a difference in society.
This change in the world really comes about through social justice. Social justice is the idea of changing society so that it is fair to all people. The government should be involved in passing legislation that assures this equal society. In his article, “Charity vs. Justice,” Dan Schreiber states that social justice is “guaranteeing that everyone be provided basic protections, rights, and material well-being.” Social justice asserts that every person on the planet is equally valuable and governments all over the world should enact legislation that follows this principle.
There are many social justice organizations that also work for this ideal. These groups tend to eliminate the negatives of charity while making a difference in people’s lives. Sharon Gaskell of the Starthrower Foundation says that “the humility of justice calls us not to do things FOR the poor of this world but rather do things WITH them, in service, in community, in negotiation, in partnership.” She goes on to say that these people know their needs and true social justice listens to these needs and addresses them in a meaningful way. This shows that social justice does not operate under paternalistic and superiority stereotypes, but actually works with people.
A great example of one of these organizations is the International Justice Mission (IJM). They are a “human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression.” This group works to change the system of structural violence through their four purposes: victim relief, perpetrator accountability, victim aftercare, and structural transformation. The IJM is different from other charity organizations because they embrace the ideals of social justice and recognize that society is flawed and it should not be. They address the root causes of oppression and fight them through their purposes of perpetrator accountability and structural transformation.
You can make a difference in reducing the harm that charities cause and in increasing the good that they do. Look into the values of the philanthropies that you support and encourage them to adopt values of social justice. Get in contact with your legislators and make it clear that you want them to be adopting laws that promote social justice in your country and around the world. Finally, find valuable social justice organizations and volunteer your time and money. You really can help them make a difference in the world!
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Resource Guide
I have chosen 15 online resources that are helpful in dealing with the issue of charity.
Miniature Earth
This video really puts the world into perspective and presents statistics about the earth in a very understandable way. It tackles some issues such as economic inequality, health, and water availability.
University of California Atlas of Global Inequality
This website has an incredible amount of data and statistics. They cover income inequality, economic globalization, gender, communication, and others. This data is available for all countries and they also have a lot of research posted on the site.
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is a good place to start when you want to find out what is going on in the world. Their website explains what the UN is doing around the globe, what kinds of laws are in place, and what governments and organizations are doing to stop various issues.
Charity Navigator
This website rates American philanthropies on their organizational efficiency (program, administrative, fundraising expenses and fundraising efficiency) and their organizational capacity (primary revenue growth, program expenses growth, and working capital ratio). This is a great site to use to find out if charities that you support are efficient and use their resources well. For each charity, Charity Navigator also provides an income statement, list of executives and what they are paid, and the charity’s mission.
Forbes.com’s Genuinely Needy article
Forbes.com evaluated 200 nonprofit organizations and “rated them on how efficiently they collect and distribute charity.” Their top ten charities include Big Brothers Big Sisters, Heifer International, and the Salvation Army.
National Center for Charitable Statistics
This is a great source for data and statistics on charities in the United States. They have all kinds of data about how much time and money Americans spend on charities. One handy aspect of this site is their data analysis tools. You can select what information you want displayed on a table. One downside is that you have to pay for some of their reports.
“Charity vs. Justice”
This article is a great summary of the differences between charity and social justice. The author highlights the different approaches that charity and social justice take and the effect that they have on people.
“Social Justice vs Charity”
This article by Sharon Gaskell of the Starthower Foundations delves into the differences between the arrogance of charity and the humility of justice. Gaskell presents the issues with charity and explains how social justice can make more of a lasting and valuable difference by working with people in poverty.
Paul Farmer on Development: Creating Sustainable Justice
This Youtube video shows a lecture by Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist, doctor, and social activist, at University of California. Farmer talks about medical treatment for people in poverty. He uses his work in Haiti through the organization Partners in Health as an example. He especially addresses the issue of developing “sustainable justice in developing countries.”
International Justice Mission
The International Justice Mission (IJM) is a great example of an organization that helps people out of slavery and oppression by changing the system. They use an approach that takes into account victim relief, perpetrator accountability, victim aftercare, and structural transformation. IJM’s website has a ton of statistics, case studies, and video that are very educational about issues in today’s world and what is being done to change them.
“Charity”
This essay by Deborah Taggart explains the history of charity including its historical roots, connection with religion, history of the word, and the differences between charity and philanthropy. The essay also includes a history of charity in the United States.
Questia
This website provides a list of books that deal with social justice. You can look at the book’s table on contents, read a selection from the book, and see reviews and ratings of the books.
Daughters of Charity
This organization has a website that explains many of the social justice issues of today. They have some newsletters that have provide information about these issues.
University of Alberta Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights- Dr. Kevin Bales
This is the transcript of a lecture that Dr. Kevin Bales, sociologist and slavery expert, gave at the University of Alberta. Bales talks about modern slavery, violence, and solutions to the issue. He mentions his organization, Free the Slaves, and other parts of the movement against slavery.
“Structural Violence as a Human Rights Violation”
This journal article by Kathleen Ho really delves into the issues of structural violence and inequality and how they are a human rights violation. She stresses the need of social and economic rights, not just civil and political rights.
Have fun exploring these resources!
Miniature Earth
This video really puts the world into perspective and presents statistics about the earth in a very understandable way. It tackles some issues such as economic inequality, health, and water availability.
University of California Atlas of Global Inequality
This website has an incredible amount of data and statistics. They cover income inequality, economic globalization, gender, communication, and others. This data is available for all countries and they also have a lot of research posted on the site.
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is a good place to start when you want to find out what is going on in the world. Their website explains what the UN is doing around the globe, what kinds of laws are in place, and what governments and organizations are doing to stop various issues.
Charity Navigator
This website rates American philanthropies on their organizational efficiency (program, administrative, fundraising expenses and fundraising efficiency) and their organizational capacity (primary revenue growth, program expenses growth, and working capital ratio). This is a great site to use to find out if charities that you support are efficient and use their resources well. For each charity, Charity Navigator also provides an income statement, list of executives and what they are paid, and the charity’s mission.
Forbes.com’s Genuinely Needy article
Forbes.com evaluated 200 nonprofit organizations and “rated them on how efficiently they collect and distribute charity.” Their top ten charities include Big Brothers Big Sisters, Heifer International, and the Salvation Army.
National Center for Charitable Statistics
This is a great source for data and statistics on charities in the United States. They have all kinds of data about how much time and money Americans spend on charities. One handy aspect of this site is their data analysis tools. You can select what information you want displayed on a table. One downside is that you have to pay for some of their reports.
“Charity vs. Justice”
This article is a great summary of the differences between charity and social justice. The author highlights the different approaches that charity and social justice take and the effect that they have on people.
“Social Justice vs Charity”
This article by Sharon Gaskell of the Starthower Foundations delves into the differences between the arrogance of charity and the humility of justice. Gaskell presents the issues with charity and explains how social justice can make more of a lasting and valuable difference by working with people in poverty.
Paul Farmer on Development: Creating Sustainable Justice
This Youtube video shows a lecture by Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist, doctor, and social activist, at University of California. Farmer talks about medical treatment for people in poverty. He uses his work in Haiti through the organization Partners in Health as an example. He especially addresses the issue of developing “sustainable justice in developing countries.”
International Justice Mission
The International Justice Mission (IJM) is a great example of an organization that helps people out of slavery and oppression by changing the system. They use an approach that takes into account victim relief, perpetrator accountability, victim aftercare, and structural transformation. IJM’s website has a ton of statistics, case studies, and video that are very educational about issues in today’s world and what is being done to change them.
“Charity”
This essay by Deborah Taggart explains the history of charity including its historical roots, connection with religion, history of the word, and the differences between charity and philanthropy. The essay also includes a history of charity in the United States.
Questia
This website provides a list of books that deal with social justice. You can look at the book’s table on contents, read a selection from the book, and see reviews and ratings of the books.
Daughters of Charity
This organization has a website that explains many of the social justice issues of today. They have some newsletters that have provide information about these issues.
University of Alberta Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights- Dr. Kevin Bales
This is the transcript of a lecture that Dr. Kevin Bales, sociologist and slavery expert, gave at the University of Alberta. Bales talks about modern slavery, violence, and solutions to the issue. He mentions his organization, Free the Slaves, and other parts of the movement against slavery.
“Structural Violence as a Human Rights Violation”
This journal article by Kathleen Ho really delves into the issues of structural violence and inequality and how they are a human rights violation. She stresses the need of social and economic rights, not just civil and political rights.
Have fun exploring these resources!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
How Charity Hurts
It is undeniable that various charities and philanthropies accomplish many great things in the world; however, it is also true that they can cause or perpetuate not so great things. These issues can stem from how philanthropies view the people they are helping and what they assume about the world.
One of the biggest problems with charities is how they perceive, and treat, the people they help. Often, people pity those they are helping and think of them as not quite equal, not having rights, and not being of much value to society. In his book, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, Paul Farmer explains that “those who believe that charity is the answer to the world’s problems often have a tendency- sometimes striking, sometimes subtle, and surely lurking in all of us- to regard those needing charity as intrinsically inferior.” This is absolutely not true and Farmer encourages us to think of these people as “victims of structural violence.”
Charities’ harmful views can be manifested in subtle ways, but they influence the philanthropy’s work and they influence how society sees people in need. One great example of this is explained in Joseph Shapiro’s book, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement.
Shapiro analyzes Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon as an example of how philanthropies negatively view their clients. The telethon presents the stories of kids with Muscular Dystrophy and portrays the kids as pitiable, depressed victims who desperately want and need a cure. This influences society because it makes people afraid of Muscular Dystrophy and makes them think that people with the disease are childlike and miserable. This is very harmful for the people with MD because others will treat them like children, will pity them, and often subconsciously think they are inferior.
Ultimately, the society will decide that, as Evan Kemp says in No Pity, “the only socially acceptable status for disabled people is their childhood . . . [and will] support the damaging and common prejudice that handicapped people are ‘sick.’” Through philanthropies such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association, society learns to look down on people with disabilities and try to avoid or hide them. As Shapiro states, “people who were pitied were also a little more disposable.”
Another view that can be very damaging is when a philanthropy maintains paternalistic assumptions. This is when they think that the people they are helping cannot take care of themselves or cannot make decisions for themselves. This ties in with the ideas of thinking that people are inferior or don’t have rights. Many charities will decide that they know best how to take care of someone or how best to spend money for them. This can result in people not getting the right kind of help and, again, in convincing society that the people in need are inferior and dependent.
Another way in which philanthropies can be harmful is in what they assume about the world. Paul Farmer asserts that “the approach of charity further presupposes that there will always be those who have and those who have not.” This is a problem because if a philanthropy decides there will always be people in need, they will not work toward ending inequalities. Farmer quotes Paulo Freire in saying that “true generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.” An organization’s lasting difference in the world is to fight the causes of inequality.
Charities can perpetuate negative stereotypes about people by how they see those they try to help. They can also ignore inequality by assuming it will always be there. To really help and make a difference, philanthropies should analyze how they view their clients and how they view the world.
Works Cited
Farmer, Paul. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkely: University of California Press, 2005.
Shapiro, Joseph P. No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1994.
Click HERE to open the feedback tool.
One of the biggest problems with charities is how they perceive, and treat, the people they help. Often, people pity those they are helping and think of them as not quite equal, not having rights, and not being of much value to society. In his book, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, Paul Farmer explains that “those who believe that charity is the answer to the world’s problems often have a tendency- sometimes striking, sometimes subtle, and surely lurking in all of us- to regard those needing charity as intrinsically inferior.” This is absolutely not true and Farmer encourages us to think of these people as “victims of structural violence.”
Charities’ harmful views can be manifested in subtle ways, but they influence the philanthropy’s work and they influence how society sees people in need. One great example of this is explained in Joseph Shapiro’s book, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement.
Shapiro analyzes Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon as an example of how philanthropies negatively view their clients. The telethon presents the stories of kids with Muscular Dystrophy and portrays the kids as pitiable, depressed victims who desperately want and need a cure. This influences society because it makes people afraid of Muscular Dystrophy and makes them think that people with the disease are childlike and miserable. This is very harmful for the people with MD because others will treat them like children, will pity them, and often subconsciously think they are inferior.
Ultimately, the society will decide that, as Evan Kemp says in No Pity, “the only socially acceptable status for disabled people is their childhood . . . [and will] support the damaging and common prejudice that handicapped people are ‘sick.’” Through philanthropies such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association, society learns to look down on people with disabilities and try to avoid or hide them. As Shapiro states, “people who were pitied were also a little more disposable.”
Another view that can be very damaging is when a philanthropy maintains paternalistic assumptions. This is when they think that the people they are helping cannot take care of themselves or cannot make decisions for themselves. This ties in with the ideas of thinking that people are inferior or don’t have rights. Many charities will decide that they know best how to take care of someone or how best to spend money for them. This can result in people not getting the right kind of help and, again, in convincing society that the people in need are inferior and dependent.
Another way in which philanthropies can be harmful is in what they assume about the world. Paul Farmer asserts that “the approach of charity further presupposes that there will always be those who have and those who have not.” This is a problem because if a philanthropy decides there will always be people in need, they will not work toward ending inequalities. Farmer quotes Paulo Freire in saying that “true generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.” An organization’s lasting difference in the world is to fight the causes of inequality.
Charities can perpetuate negative stereotypes about people by how they see those they try to help. They can also ignore inequality by assuming it will always be there. To really help and make a difference, philanthropies should analyze how they view their clients and how they view the world.
Works Cited
Farmer, Paul. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkely: University of California Press, 2005.
Shapiro, Joseph P. No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1994.
Click HERE to open the feedback tool.
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