Question: What do you think of charity?

Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 24 Jun 2014:

Pretty tough question, 12brennann!

I do think that charity is very important and can play an important role. But, like for everything, there are nuances. First, not all charities are as efficient as each other at getting the money to the cause you are giving. So some research is in order when you try to find an NGO to give to, to make sure all your money doesn’t end up paying for administration, advertisement (that’s usually just spam…) and that some of it actually gets to the cause itself. There are also different types of causes. Things like providing food to kids in Africa sounds great, but actually it doesn’t help solving the root of the problem, which is often extreme poverty, corrupted political regimes, lack of development and accessible education, etc… So giving to an organization that tries to address one of those problems is actually much more beneficial in the long term, for example an NGO that funds education through school material or sends teachers to educate local teachers is much more likely to have long term beneficial impacts. Something along the lines of the quote: ‘Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.’

Sadly, charity is often a way for people living in ‘first world’ countries to feel less guilty about the way the world is. That means that they will be willing to give few dollars but won’t invest the efforts to figure out what really happens with their money or to follow up with the projects they have donated to.

But, regardless of all the negatives, there is a huge number of NGO out there who are doing amazing work everyday, and contributing to make the world a better place. And the really great thing is that it actually works: they do make a difference in the world! I mean, there is still a LOT of work to be done, and it’s far from being perfect, there are tremendous challenges awaiting us in the future (like global warming, water and food supplies, etc…), but the world IS a better place than it was 50 years ago. If you have time, you should watch this talk from a UN worker:

Now, giving money to charities isn’t the only way to help the world becoming a better place. There are loads of possibilities to have a more ‘hands on’ approach, e.g. by volunteering in different projects, form the ultra-local ones to the global ones. Again here, the same concerns as above apply.

I personally did a bit of both, trying to give money to causes I believe in and NGO who work hands on in an efficient way, and volunteering when I have time. Throughout my high school years I did lots of volunteer work with mentally ill students, with sick children, disadvantaged students, and a number of fund raising activities and shows for cancer research. I also went to volunteer in Paraguay just when I finished high school. I guess a lot of that was motivated by the ideal of giving equal chances to everyone in life. More recently, I went to teach in Chine in a more disadvantaged, rural university. That last one is part of a long term project to show how teaching based on understanding can be achieved, to instigate a research culture, and establish long lasting collaborations between that university and Cambridge. Lots of the things I’ve done recently are related to outreach (definitely a thing I believe in – what good is it to understand the universe if that knowledge remains the exclusivity of a few?)

But in the end I guess that charity is also simply a value that one can live with on a daily basis, a philosophy of giving back to the others some of what was given to one. In that case I think it’s completely awesome.