Don't Get Me Wrong But -- Should I Really Donate For Japan Quake?

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

But we are in the BBQ P… oh.

My bad.

[Huerta88]

@Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela

I would say to all of you who are confident that Japan will bounce back from this series of catastrophes - Why don’t you then invest heavily on the Nikkei? You will help Japan in the short term, and when it rebounds and you sell off at a healthy profit, you’ll be taking hard-earned money from Japan back to your own country. There will never be an easier time to get in on the ground floor.

Markets are not economies and the direction of the Nikkei won’t help anyone on the ground in the short run.

Having said which, done and done – EWJ and DFJ are two decently leveraged ways to put your money on Japanese creativity and resilience. I’m long both (and down in the short run).

My contributions are real, which is why the OP matters to me – they’re not limitless so I want bang for buck. If someone can convince me that someone will get fed/sheltered/clothed/rescued tomorrow (next week) in Japan due to my donation, who otherwise would not – Hell, it’s a non-issue. There may be articles out there that say that lack of outside funding is what is holding the relief efforts back, or that more could be done right now, or faster, if we sent them more cash – I have not seen them though. If I wouldn’t send a can of evaporated milk or a space blanket because I think it’d be more a nuisance than a help, would I send an incremental dollar? That’s the question.

There are two overarching reasons I will be giving anyhow. One, while I don’t doubt the relief organizations in Japan have what they need TODAY, when all is said and done, they’ll need to re-up their coffers for the (inevitable) next crisis. Two, while I’m usually against “just doing something,” I feel like symbolically, after all the anxious e-mails and conversations I’ve had with friends over there, it’s a good gesture of solidarity.

If you feel like making any donations, and want to make sure any you should choose to make are going more directly to where they’re needed, I’d suggest these two options:

Philanthropic Initiatives For Local Communities - Google.org

http://www.japansociety.org/earthquake

I’ll leave alone the jackass comments about how anyone was suggesting Japan “doesn’t really need our help.” They’ve got a U.S. carrier group doing everything they can. The question is whether they need incremental cash donations from individual Americans to avert the humanitarian crisis, right now. That answer is not so clear.

[Little_Edie]

The site Good Intents has a good piece about waiting to give to Japan as well as an excellent, always useful article about The Do’s and Don’ts of Disaster Donations. A lot of stuff about people setting up non-profits with no experience, or starting projects that were virtually useless or even harmful just because they felt the urge to help.

Do look for organizations with prior experience and expertise
There is a great deal of money after well publicized disasters. The ease of raising money makes it tempting to respond even if the organization does not have prior experience in that area. After the 2004 tsunami, many organizations with no prior experience built boats or houses. I attended one handover ceremony where the boats actually sank during the ceremony because they weren’t properly sealed. There is a steep learning curve when nonprofits move out of their normal area of work, this may lead to mistakes and wasted money. Make sure the organization has prior experience in their proposed projects.

Don’t earmark funds
The organization is on the ground and has a far better idea of what is needed the most than someone half the world away. Earmarking funds may force the organization to spend money where it’s not needed and keep it from funding the projects that are needed the most. After the tsunami in Thailand, an organization had money earmarked for two truckloads of rice. By the time they arrived in the area four months after the tsunami, shipments of rice were no longer needed. Because the money had been earmarked the organization had to contact donors to get permission to use the money in different ways. If you trust the organization allow them to make professional decisions on how to best use your donation, if you don’t trust them then find another organization to donate to.

[Huerta88]

@Little_Edie

The site Good Intents has a good piece about waiting to give to Japan as well as an excellent, always useful article about The Do’s and Don’ts of Disaster Donations.

See also – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16charity.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=stephanie%20strom&st=cse

[Susanann]

@BobLibDem

If we use the needy in the US as a rationale for not helping other nations, then we will never help other nations. Sure, we have homeless in the US. We don’t have entire regions suffering on the same scale as the Japanese. For those of you with religious beliefs, can you imagine St. Peter asking you “How many Americans did you help?” rather than “How many people did you help?”

Not really, because Japan is our second biggest creditor. Japan owns nearly a trillion dollars of our US Treasury notes, which means that we borrowed a trillion dollars from Japan.

Whatever money we give to Japan, is money that we previously borrowed from them. …and furthermore, since we are going to be borrowing a whole lot more from Japan in the next few years, it doesnt seem to make much sense to borrow tons of money from Japan and then give them back a few of their own dollars.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt

[Kyla]

@Bridget_Burke

So, who is getting your $20? (Sorry if I seem abrupt. But most of these “contributions” are strictly theoretical.)

Last week I gave $20 to a project to purchase books for a school library in Mozambique through Peace Corps Partnership. Then I told my friend about it, and she donated $20 to a project to train health care workers in Senegal. So I will take a little credit for her donation as well.

[Frank]

Are charities taking advantage of the urge to help Japan?

Mr. Hassenfeld points out that Japan is a major economy with a highly developed disaster-relief program that has little need of outside help. The Japanese government’s response has involved more than 200,000 people and dozens of agencies. While 113 countries have offered to help in various ways, Japan has taken up just 14 offers, most involving specialized search and rescue teams.

The Japanese Red Cross has not issued an international appeal. The organization “has determined that external assistance is not required, and is therefore not seeking funding or other assistance from donors at this time,” said a bulletin issued this week by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Even the United Nations conceded this week that while it has sent a disaster-response team to Japan, the deployment was unusual because “the government of Japan has a very strong disaster-preparedness and response mechanism in place.”