Christmas Charities Got Your Goat?

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Christmas Charities Got Your Goat?

by Georgianne Nienaber

 

 

 

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The pitch is everything. The graphics seal the deal. Almost. For 120 measly

bucks--$10 if a " share " is all one can afford-- the charitable donor can give a

" versatile gift " of a hardy goat to some poor kid in a third world country, help

to end world hunger, and contribute fertilizer to improve crop yields in the

bargain. I can erase images of Darfur from my mind, relegate the rape of the

Congo by multi-national forces back to the John Le Carre & #769; novel where it

belongs, and go purchase those diamond earrings that I deserve but have been too

embarrassed to buy, what with blood diamonds lighting up the screen in my

friendly neighborhood multi-plex.

 

But there is a niggling little reality that wrecks my conscience-cleansing plan.

Fate collided with reality in central Africa a few weeks ago, and I just

HAPPENED to be at a goat market, where I could get a goat for $10 US, less if I

bargained a bit. Not wanting to be accusatory about livestock inflation, I did a

quick internet check of goat prices in the third world and discovered they top

out at $12 a goat. Uh Oh. This would be more difficult than I had planned. I

would have to research my year-end giving and actually think about where my

money is going before I could rest easy.

 

Chucking the charming graphic out the window with the Christmas cards, I said

good-bye to the rendering of the thatched native hut with goat, steer, chicken,

rabbit, and sheep devouring the grass while the cute cow in the logo jumps over

the moon. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in the pie, while the wise men are

too busy feeding their families to make an appearance this year.

 

The pie. The infernal pie chart of donor NGO's in the third world is a nursery

rhyme used to lull the little old lady in Hoboken into writing that year-end

check that goes nowhere. Consultants are paid mightily to get that pie to work

out just so.

 

" When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,

Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king? "

 

©iStockphoto.com

 

Depends. Open the pie and it can be what you want it to be. In Michael Maren's

book, " The Road to Hell, " he casts a damning eye on the true practices of

foreign aid and international charity. A donor looks at a simple pie chart

graphic which purports to show " where the money goes. " The bottom line is that

the donor wants to see the biggest piece of the pie going to program

services-which the uneducated sponsor will assume means buying goats in the case

of our mythical pie. But pie charts can be misleading. Even if the biggest piece

of the pie shows money going to " program expenses, " the fine print in 990 tax

forms and sales pitches can show that " program expenses " include salaries,

expense accounts, travel, rent, vehicles, and even fundraising costs. The

sponsor assumes, wrongly, that his/her donation is going directly to the

pastoral scene depicted on the charming graphic that goes along with the pie

chart pitch.

 

Lots of blackbirds escaping from this pie. Too late to catch them.

 

A passionate cry from India made the environmental blogs this season. The

writer, Maneka Gandi, pleads with the first world to stop sending goats. Gandi

describes charities that entice well-meaning donors with pictures of goats

wearing Christmas hats when the whole idea is " madness, " considering that these

animals contribute mightily to the problems of drought in third world countries.

Gandi goes on to describe the consequences of mis-guided livestock donations.

 

" Goats have a devastating effect because each goat eats all the grass and

shrubbery on two hectares of land a year, " Gandi says. " A goat destroys the

fertility of land and any milk or dung it may give is very little compared to

the havoc it wreaks. Within two years, the people who have goats have an even

poorer lifestyle - there are village quarrels on community grazing; the children

are taken out of school to graze the goats, (and) water becomes even scarcer. "

 

Abandoning the theme of goats for a moment, Gandi also describes another

livestock scam involving donkeys. In ten years the organization in question has

kept 70 donkeys in their enclosure and treated another 50. " They come from

Europe at least once a month, three days at a time, and stay in five

star hotels to check whether their Indian doctors are working, " Gandi says.

 

" The king was in his counting house counting out his money,

The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey

The villager was in the garden hanging out the clothes,

When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose! "

 

The road to hell indeed! So, how does the donor find the higher road?

 

Responsible giving is not impossible. Look to the smaller charities. If the CEO

is too busy to write you a personal note and explain where your dollar is going,

look elsewhere. A small charity can hand carry donations directly to villagers

in the third world. It is done all the time. Don't be fooled into thinking that

you have to go through a large organization.

 

Internet clearing houses such as Guidestar.org, while useful, don't always tell

the whole story. Their information is only as good as what is supplied to them

and Form 990's often lie. Ask a friend who has a history with an organization.

My personal rule of thumb is that the bigger the organization is, the less

likely my money will ever get to the individual in the village or the threatened

animal in the bush.

 

If you are retired and healthy, volunteer for a group that is involved in a

community project in the third world. Check with your churches. Again, avoid the

larger organizations that act as middle-men for " volunteers. " Your time and

money will be wasted.

 

Believe it or not, it is possible to build whatever you want in the third world

and make a difference. It might take some research and it might take some

personal time, but the rewards will be infinite and you won't fall into the

donor trap of paying a first-world salary while some kid in Africa or India goes

to school under a tree, sitting in dust that has been devoured by the livestock.

 

With apologies to the movie,BABE, there is no reason for the donor to follow

like a sheep or feel like a goat:

 

" Baa-ram-ewe, baa-ram-ewe. To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true. Sheep

be true. Baa-ram-ewe. "

 

www.thelegacyofdianfossey.com

Georgianne Nienaber has been an investigative environmental writer for more

than thirty years and wrote a column for the Rwandan New Times. She lives in

rural northern Minnesota. Recent articles have appeared in The United Nations

Publication, A Civil Society Observer, AllAfrica.com, and Zimbabwe's The Daily

Mirror. Her fiction exposé of insurance fraud in the horse industry, Horse

Sense, was re-released in early 2006. She recently worked on the Coleen Rowley

for Congress campaign, doing press and campaign events.

 

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