Essay Sample on Charity

Charities and philanthropy have always had a significant impact on the lives of many around the world. They are the cornerstone of determining the lives and potential futures of countless inhabitants of this planet who are surviving each and every day with the very little that they have. To put it into perspective, charity is a trillion-dollar industry that benefits from people’s willingness to help the disadvantaged by taking donations to help turn their lives around. On surface level that sounds amazing, however we are too naïve and even astounded to understand and to think that something as pure and giving as charity can have an ugly and evil side too. Unfortunately, much of these good intentions that we have towards helping those in need often fuel a toxic form of charity that fails to offer any lasting change. Upon reading “Toxic Charity” and conducting extensive research on what exactly charities are, I can say with absolute assurance that I had always assumed charity was akin to God because I believed it to be pure and unadulterated. However, I soon learned that any type of philanthropy always comes with its pros and cons.

 Everything has a “the good, the bad, and the ugly” side to it, including charities. One of the main ideas that should be understood is that charities have a list of requirements they must meet in order to be considered a great charity. Oftentimes people assume that a charity is considered great if it can get huge sums of donations, however that is not the case. Quantity of money is definitely a factor that determines the greatness of a charity; however, it does not determine the legitimacy of one. A charity is nothing if it cannot accurately take care of the money in a reasonable manner. Therefore, any philanthropy is considered “good” if it can account for itself. People donate to charities in hopes that their money is being used to its fullest potential and is allocated for the actual cause that the charity is supposed to tackle. Essentially a charity should not be profiting off of the money it is getting because, “If a charity is more interested in tasks that are more remunerative than helping the needy, perhaps a new definition of charity is needed.” (Wells, 25) Basically, what that means is that you want your charity to have a good return on investment, meaning that the money you put in will hopefully help a disadvantaged because your investment (donation) is accurately being allocated. Oftentimes a sign that indicates that a charity is using your money correctly is that it will show you a cost breakdown analysis of how the money you donated is being used down to the last penny. Charities such as United way, St. Jude’s, and Habitat for Humanity are excellent examples of ones that practice that idea. Any charity that can be transparent with you and provide you a cost breakdown is most likely going to be a great charity to donate into because it essentially has nothing to hide.

Ironically enough, the same list that is used to assess if a charity is good is also used to assess and weed out the charities that are bad and are pretending to be helpful. Usually, these types of charities are not recognized that well and therefore do not have a sterling recognition to begin with. This means that these charities oftentimes have a hard time getting donations to come their way. A charity such as Project Extreme made to help troubled teens is hardly going to be noticed by someone when big charitable institutions such as United Way (meant to help impoverished people around the world) and Habitat for Humanity have been garnering attention for so long. Therefore, when these charities do get some mediocre amount of donations, they often times end up using the money that was meant for the actual cause, to be used to pay for things that it was not meant to be used for. This is a legitimate issue because these charitable institutions promised that they would use the donations given to tackle the cause that they sworn to fight. Any charity claiming to be a charity is going to self-profess that they have good intentions, however the focus should be on whether they are going to perform according to those intentions, because “If there is anything we should have learned… it is that good intentions do not guarantee good results.” (Bennet, DiLorenzo, 5) Charities such as “Children’s Wish Foundation” and “Christ for Humanity” claim to be helping, but unlike the charities above, they cannot prove their transparency with the people, making them seem illegitimate.