[lit-ideas] Re: Giving on Thanksgiving
- From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:10:32 +0900
On the philanthropic front, a recent favorite of ours is Room to
Read.<http://www.roomtoread.org/> Is
it cost-effective or better than other charities that make more urgent
appeals? I couldn't say. But to my wife and I, both avid readers since
childhood, it is remarkably congenial.
Beer for Books <http://www.beersforbooks.org/> is also a remarkably
sociable fundraising mechanism and one that lends itself to multiplication.
Just last night Ruth and I were in Kugehama Kaigan, a small beach resort
south of Yokohama, where the owner of a French language academy held a
Beaujolais for Books party, seizing on the opportunity of the marketing
noise that accompanies the annual promotion of Beaujolais Nouveau in Japan,
mobilizing members of the French community to lay out a sumptuous spread,
and, it appears, raising a good deal of yen for the cause.
John
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 10:55 PM, Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> There is a problem in deciding what charities are best to give to,
> particularly given the lack of transparency in many charities' activities
> [e.g. Save The Children, which has a very prominent and affecting
> television campaign running here) and proven failures in much charitable
> activity, which may not only fail to be cost-effective but may even overall
> worsen a situation - 'giving well' may be much more important, indeed
> valuable, than simply 'giving more'. So, if you wished to make a regular
> donation to a charity in order to improve the situation for people in the
> Third World, which charity would you choose and why? And, if it is any
> different, which would would you choose, and why, if the criterion was its
> likely or proven cost-effectiveness in alleviating suffering?
>
> Donal
> London
>
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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