Charity As it Should be Done

Kiva is something I have harped on in the past (here and here). I like it because it allows me, on a very micromanaged level, to choose how I wish to develop the world within a set of pre-chosen receivers. Kiva gives me a list of potentials who would like to receive a loan and it gives me a description of them. What there busness will be. A very slight snippet of their life. A talk about where they live. And possibly something of their ambitions. I donate there because I trust. Yes, I do know there are potential risks associated with giving money to groups in far away countries (419) but the risk of me losing my money versus a single individual losing the potential of a proper existence doesn't compare. I like giving. It makes me feel a little more relevant. It almost makes me feel as if I am, in some way, part of the solution. Ode to my emotions...as wild as they might be.

One thing I hear a lot from people is that they don't give because they think their hard earned money will go to inefficiency. Most people don't mind paying taxes. They receive services as a result - roads, police, protection from foreign invasion all the way down to social security, a certain level of available public health and a space program. I like to pay my taxes when I see the deal I get is worth it. I have in the past not donated to churches or groups like the Red Cross because of all of the lacking care I see in spending my money. How much money goes to pay for the executive's suite or the pretty leather chairs located in the Manhattan offices of whomever is collecting my hard work? I work hard and sacrifice for that money and as a result, I want it to be looked at and cared for in a similar manner as I do my own money. That money represents my productivity in life. In the American economy that I exist in, it represents my life's work (in the working sense of the word, my life will one day encompass helping the future of my planet through the raising of healthy children one day). It does matter.

What I would like to see created (or, lord knows, help create) is a tool, similar to Kiva in a few ways, to allow me to donate money to groups like the Red Cross but to donate money only to very specific places and parts of that process. I do know on the Red Cross' website they allow for you to specify where your donations go on a very high level (for instance when the Asian Tsunami destroyed so many lives I was able to choose from a drop down menu where I wanted my money to go). But that isn't enough for me. I want to be able to choose to allow my money to go specificially for the blankets of a child in a hospital located in Indonesia or the formula for a baby in the Sudan. Let every cost that is associated with a particular project around the world be paid for on an individual level. Quite possibly we might not choose to give money to the salaried employees of these groups, but I have a feeling that over time these positions will whither away as the collection of monies becomes automated and private enterprise then steps in. If I have chosen to pay for the blankets and you choose to pay for the air transportation from the factory that makes said blankets then what else is needed? I know that is an oversimplification but the world can be that easy if the time is taken in terms of programming the software and the end users appropriately invest their time.

Hospitals in Jakarta should explicitly define their needs. Locals associated with the website should invest their time to check up and verify the quality of the work done by the group and that the product is being appropriately applied to where it is needed. yes, there will always be risk but that is part of the equation when knowledge isn't perfect.

Just an idea at a loony hour of the weekend.