Authenticity of International Help Organizations?

UlfJack wonders: "I've been thinking about donating money, especially to organizations like Plan USA, who are doing what they can to help people in Third World countries. However I found it very difficult to check the authenticity of these organizations, so I'm trying to cross-check multiple independent sources. Has anyone figured out an easy way to do this?"

Comments

other ways to help

[same_old_story]

Of course giving money can make a difference.

But there are other ways to help (specially if you are an american citzen).

One great way is to make sure you vote / pressure you legislators / presidents towards broader / better foreing policy. For example, Brazil has held long disputes with the wto for the usa to stop anti competitive measures, such as heavy agricultural subsidies. There is much talk about open economies, but many developed countries put a lot of barries for third world countries to make a fair competition.

using popular services

[boeserjavamann]

living in germany, i always check back websites of popular newsservices or tv-stations to see if they are listed (e.g. at the horrible tsunami disaster)

Re:Simple.

[tod_miller]

You could use google pagerank for plan usa, plan usa has a link to give.org... you could google both of these and find out if a larger company is linking to them (amazon or bbc).

There you go. Don't forget, always donate anonymously and in private, why advertise your generosity, that is like buying a service, rather than donating charitably.

What also bothers me

[fozzmeister]

is how much of the money you give actually gets to the intended cause, my guess for a standard high profile charity (oxfam et al) would be somewhere between 40% - 60% (although this may be well off). As for those people who just walk upto you in the street for some random charity i've never heard of, i'd never give to those.

Really I think charities should be made to publish this information, it surely could be a charity and pay its President most of the contributions, providing the "charity" didn't make money

Re:What also bothers me

[ApharmdB]

At least in the US, I believe charities ARE required to publish this information. If it isn't a requirement then apparently a lot of them are doing it voluntarily. Go the Red Cross, UNICEF, or Doctor's without Borders web pages and you can find their budgets. The information tends to be in their press centers. Doctors without Borders is 85.67% towards program services. Management is small at 1.92% and fundraising is the other 12.41%.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/dona te/info.s html

So your assumptions and guesses are incorrect and are quickly disproven by looking at the charities' web sites.

Re:Third World Countries...BAH!

[Anonymous Coward]

What exactly makes your neighbors more deserving of your help than my neighbors? (Besides the fact that they have to put up with a xenophobic bigot such as you in their community?) What you're talking about is only a little less self-centered than someone saying that he'll only help his friends, or his family, or himself. Thank God most Americans have a better grasp of what charity is.

Re:Third World Countries...BAH!

[mmkkbb]

What's really sad is that the original comment is at +2 Insightful. :(