I just threw out a piece of mail from the American heart Association, soliciting me for a donation. In their blurb, they state that they “educate people about the dangers of heart disease and stroke”. Well, fine, I’m sure education is fine, but why are they asking private citizens to pay for it?
The government provides the vast majority of the funds for medical research-so why do we need this organization in the first place?
I read a book a few years ago, regarding the finacial accountability of charities-some are very good (Salavation Army, St. Vincent DePaul)-these usually have low expense ratios, and turn over >80 cents on the dollar, to the actual recipents. These are charities that I readily contribute to. On the other side, there are ones that are abysmal-I recall reading that less than 10% of the money collected by the American Cancer Society actually goes to research. Talk about useless-why do some of these rackets still exist?
> why are they asking private citizens to pay for it?
Who should pay for it then? Cats & dogs?
Go to http://www.give.org to get information and ratings of over 400 US charities. The site also has information on charities and giving in general.
BTW, The American Cancer Society and The American Heart Association both meet the philanthropic standards set by GIVE.ORG. Raising money for good charities is hard enough wothout people spreading misinformation.
Many of my friends (and myself) are often called whiches. I don’t think which charities are bogus. Stop spreading your religious elitism and grow up.
This message brought to you by the stupid humour of Sqrl.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Working in the pharmaceutical industry, I have to profess that I don’t understand the need for the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Society BEYOND education. Yes, people do need education about cancer and heart disease both in terms of warning signs and their options if they have either.
What I don’t understand is the people who claim you should give money to these societies for RESEARCH! Last time I checked, the incentive to a pharmaceutical company of producing a blockbuster heart medication or cancer drug was the profits they reap for such a discovery. Sure, if someone wants to fund that research for FREE, I’m sure scientists are more than happy to take the money. Perhaps it goes towards research that otherwise wouldn’t get funded (though how someone would prove that I don’t know)
Also, all the grants I’ve ever seen for cancer and heart research have come from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or similar government body. I personally haven’t seen any studies indicating they were done with a grant from either of these charities (though I am not implying they don’t exist, only that I haven’t seen them.)
So IS giving to these charities ONLY for education? If so, lets call a spade a spade and quit with the ‘research’ angle.
The only charity we give to is the ‘Make a wish’ foundation. It doesn’t cure anything, but I like the idea that a little kid got their dying wish. And their wishes tend to be very public in nature, so you don’t seem to read a lot about scams with that charity. My bigger gripe is why they don’t satisfy MORE of the kid’s wishes. After all, most five year old boys probably have a wish of getting to play on heavy construction equipment all day or operate a wrecking ball which I would think could be easily arranged…
How about “The Human Fund - Money for People”?
Did anyone else notice that PETA is on give.org’s “did not meet one or more of the standards” list? Anyone know why?
I know the American Cancer Society does give away quite a bit in grants each year; my boss just recently applied for a grant from them. I would assume that AHA, the American Lung Association, and a few other huge organizations of that type also give away grants.
While the incentive for a pharmaceutical company is not to get grants from charities, the incentive for an academic researcher is exactly that. Grants for charities, NIH, or NSF are… well, pretty much all that exist. I can say I’ve seen papers where the research was supported by an ACS or AHA grant, though I will admit they’re far inot the minority compared with NIH or NSF.
LL
While the government through NIH or NSF does give out quite a bit more money than these charities do for research, if it’s a cause you believe in (like curing cancer), it’s hard to argue that there’s too much money going for research in that field. Just because the government contribution overshadows that of charities doesn’t mean the charities don’t do good work.
Nice link, Doctor Jackson, thanks!
Miss Bunny, that sounds good. Change the title immediately. j/k
HUGS!
Sqrl
Sqrl, in case you didn’t know, that’s not a Bunny Original - I borrowed it from Seinfeld. But it would make a good charity name, IMO.
You could have lied. I would not have known the difference. I still think it is a good one.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Major Tangent Alert (Star Trek Red Alert Sound Effect) : Recently I was riding up the subway escallator into the Pentagon City Shopping Mall when I was assaulted by a cute little girl who couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. Okay, she could have been older- I’m not a good judge of age. My pointy is that she reminded me of little Cindy Lou Who from Whoville. She was strategically posted at the escallator platform thus denying escallator passengers the opportunity of turning around or taking a detour to avoid her.
Turns out she was asking for spare change for her school (uniforms I think, I’m not really sure because I whizzed past her at approximately the speed of light). I have also seen children (not teenagers, mind you, but little children) walking up and down the dividing islands on major hiways & poking their heads into the car windows of hapless motorists stopped at traffic lights, presumably doing the same thing.
What’s going on with school budgets lately that they have to ask the kids to walk the streets begging for spare change?? What would the school do if one of these kids were to get her dress caught in the escallator or hit by a car during their collection rounds? Seems like child labor to me. Wait a minute- nobody’s getting paid- make that child slavery.
I would like to make some contributions to schools in need, especially knowing that my $ would go to a school in my area, instead of to who knows where. Maybe next time I’ll ask Little Cindy Lou Who what the name of her school is and offer to send a donation directly to the school in her name. That would make me feel better than giving it directly to the kids, who probably use it to feed their skittles habit anyway.
I don’t have any kids, but would be interested in hearing from parents as to whether schools really ask them to have their children do this.
(Cancel Red Alert)