Numbers vs. Change

I ran across a really interesting article from the Harvard Business Review about, among other things, the criteria that people look for in choosing which organizations in the humanitarian sector warrant their charitable contributions.  It seems to be an overriding trend that the average American is much more interested in a low overhead percentage than in actual, demonstrated results from a non-profit.  In one study cited in the article, 79% of respondents reported that they wouldn't give money to a cause without knowing how much goes to overhead/administration, while only 6% said they needed to know if their money was going to make a difference.  

That's REALLY frustrating for me!  As one of the people working in the humanitarian/non-profit/whatever sector, I've experienced firsthand the intrinsic difficulties caused by an obsessive focus on showing off a pie chart with a little tiny sliver labeled "administration" and the rest proudly marked "project costs" or something like that.  The problem is that this system doesn't reflect the positive change that is resulting from an organization's work.  I've seen many groups that are just giving away things to people in need...helping them for a day but hurting them for the rest of their lives and creating absolutely zero long-term benefit for the individuals, their families, or their societies.  Many times this even creates a negative overall impact by cultivating an attitude of dependence, hampering local businesses, and stifling the development of skills.  BUT it looks great in a pie chart.  

If you don't pay anyone to teach people or monitor their progress, you can get a lot of volunteers to hand out things and make themselves feel good.  If you don't put any effort or spending into researching needs and evaluating results, then all of your money can go into whatever short-lived "thing" you decide from the other side of the ocean to throw at people.  If you don't hire locals as real employees and give them the benefits they deserve, then you won't have much admin cost.  You'll have an awesome pie chart and you'll probably get a lot of money thrown at you from innocent Americans, but you won't be doing any good.

It's a struggle for me to see organizations doing this while we try to run CARE for AIDS with an ultimate goal of producing actual change.  This means that we do buy computers to track the progress of our clients and analyze our results.  It means that we do give our employees benefits like social security, health insurance, and ongoing training seminars to make them effective in their jobs and equip them for the rest of their lives.  It means that we spend money on professional teachers and trainers to help our clients learn skills, not only collect handouts.  It even means that we pay for quality marketing materials and professional financial advising in the States, because we view them as a long-term investment in our ability to reach more people here in Africa.  All of this adds up to more than just a sliver on our pie chart, but it contributes to the real, sustained, long-term change that is taking place in the lives of the clients we serve, the futures of the Kenyans we employ, the health of the churches we partner with, and the reality of the AIDS crisis all across Kenya.

And I'm much more proud of THAT than a pie chart.  

ps - here is the article mentioned

Ongoing one-on-one training and counseling means more 

spending on salaries/benefits and less spending on handouts, 

but it actually makes a difference!