Build and Defend Newsletter 38

Today's topic is: building and defending your charitable giving.

There is a peculiar problem with charity. The better the story, the harder it becomes to ask the boring questions.

A photograph. A heartbreaking account. Somebody doing something extraordinary in difficult circumstances. You want to help. That is a good instinct. Then a small voice asks where the money goes, and suddenly you feel like the villain in a Christmas film questioning the orphanage's procurement policy.

You are not. Generosity and scrutiny are not opposites. If the point is to help someone, asking whether your contribution will actually help is part of being generous.

This is not an argument for finding reasons never to give. We already have enough people who can explain why every problem belongs to somebody else. It is about building a habit of giving that reflects your values, survives beyond the latest appeal, and does more than buy a brief feeling that you did something.

Choose the Change You Want to Support

Start with the people, problem, or place that matters to you. Education. Hunger. Medical care. Animal welfare. A local community organisation. Something connected to your own experience. You do not need to defend your entire moral philosophy before helping the local food bank. But be specific. “Help children” is a wish. “Support a programme that helps children attend school and explains how it tracks attendance and learning” gives you something to examine. Especially the last part - you have to know that your money is being spent wisely. Too many charities spend 95% on salaries, fancy flights, and a lot of administrivia and very little on the people they're actually supposed to help.

Also, local and global giving need not be rivals. You might support one organisation whose work you can see and another whose work has strong independent evidence. They can serve different purposes. Decide deliberately rather than allowing whichever campaign has the best video editor to set your priorities.

Give Your Giving a Budget Choose an amount you can sustain without putting your household under pressure. No magic percentage required. Leave room for occasional urgent appeals if that matters to you, rather than treating every unexpected request as a new budget.

Predictable support can be useful, but recurring donations should be a choice. Decide when to review them. You can also give time, equipment, introductions, or specialist skills, provided the organisation actually needs them. Not everything needs to be a monetary donation. However, you should ask before donating your ancient printer. Charity should not be the final stage of your household's waste-management system. Maybe the HP LaserJet 1100 could be a donation to the computer museum and not Charity:Water.

Check the Organisation and the Work Separately

There are questions to ask:

Registration is a useful identity and accountability check. It is not a certificate saying every programme works brilliantly. Look for recent reports, financial information, responsible leadership (this is important!), and an explanation of results. An activity is not automatically an outcome: delivering books is different from showing that children are learning. Both matter, but they answer different questions.

Be proportionate. A small local group may not have a research department. A clear conversation, credible accounts, and direct knowledge of its work may be appropriate. A large organisation making precise claims about its impact should be able to explain the evidence. Neither a moving testimonial, a song by Sarach McLachlan, nor an impressive spreadsheet settles the matter by itself.

Give Where You Know

My high school (regis.org) is a scholarship-only Catholic high school for boys. Having been there, graduated, and having kept up with the work they do, I know where my money is going when I donate to them. They publish the results of their programs regularly. "Charity begins at home" is interesting when you slightly broaden the definition of "home". Essentially, giving to organisations with a track record with which you're familiar is speed-running the entire set of steps above. (I did the same with "Sole Hope" - after we did an activity of theirs with Zscaler where I worked, I researched them, confirmed what they were doing, and I've been giving ever since.)

Sad Stories Do NOT Verify Identity Scammers can - and do - impersonate a real charities. Your mother-in-law forwarding an appeal on Facebook does not establish who controls the receiving account. Make sure you check these things to make sure that when your heart strings are tugged, it's not by the same person who is also twirling his moustache with the other hand.

For an unfamiliar appeal, find the organisation's official website. Check the payment destination. Do not use urgency as a substitute for verification! A genuine emergency does not make a fraudulent payment helpful. Also be aware of the politics of your organisation. You'd be hard-pressed to find fault with the Red Cross, except and unless your politics suggest that aiding the invasion of your country is not a good thing.

With crowdfunding, understand who receives the money, what the platform checks, and what happens if the target is missed or circumstances change. Helping an individual can be worthwhile, but it is not the same arrangement as donating to an established charity. And (as above) you need to check those too.

Do Not Worship the Overhead Ratio “Every penny goes to the cause” sounds lovely. Somebody still needs to keep the accounts, protect sensitive information, supervise staff, and check that the work happens.

Low overhead alone does not prove high impact. High overhead alone does not prove waste. Ask whether the costs make sense for the work and whether the organisation can explain them. Competent administration is not automatically money stolen from beneficiaries. Equally, “we need infrastructure” is not an unlimited permission slip.

Defend Your Giving Independence

You can say, “I've already allocated my giving budget, but send me the information and I'll review it.” You can care about a cause without donating during a phone call. Although to be frank, who actually answers their phone from unrecognised numbers these days?

You can use comparison services and charity checkers as well to defend your donation destinations. Figure out what they measure, what they leave out, and which organisations they cover. GiveWell focuses on evidence and cost-effectiveness in global health and development for example. That helps for that area, but you might need to do some research or ask AI for help with the other giving categories. There is also a difference between giving privately and collecting money from others. Check the rules where you live before organising or promoting a fundraiser. In many places, donations and fundraising are regulated; use official guidance and authorised channels rather than assuming a social media collection is just going to be okay. Cross-border giving and tax treatment also depend on your circumstances.

One note is enough. Copy these headings:

Keep receipts privately. Do not put beneficiary details into a shared spreadsheet merely to make your giving look organised.

AI can help compare public reports or turn a long annual report into questions. Ask it to distinguish reported activity from demonstrated results, link every factual claim to its source, and mark missing information. Then open the sources yourself. Do not let it invent a charity rating, upload private beneficiary records, or decide that a polished summary proves an organisation deserves your money.

Before Giving to a Charity
The US Federal Trade Commission's practical checks for appeals, payment methods, impersonation, and unwanted recurring donations. Its legal and tax details are US-specific; the verification habits travel well.

GiveWell
Research into global health and development programmes, including explanations of evidence, funding needs, and uncertainty. A useful specialist lens, not a universal ranking of generosity.

CharityWatch
Charity analysis and donor guidance, particularly useful when examining US organisations and how they report spending.

UAE Federal Law Regulating Donations
These are the UAE regulations regarding charitable giving. There are similar ones for where you are. Ask an AI near you for yours.

Pick one cause you genuinely care about and one organisation working on it. Spend a short, focused session checking its identity, its work, and its official donation route. Fill in the giving brief.

You do not have to send money today. Decide whether this is an organisation you understand well enough to support, or write down the one question you still need answered.

Build the habit of giving. Defend the possibility that your help actually reaches somebody.

Thanks for reading this newsletter! Feel free to respond any time.

Thomas

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