He should name the charity with which he speaks of, “United way”
The rest are mostly as you describe
Comment on Is it normal that I feel pretty bad for ignoring homeless people begging for money?
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 4 months agoI’ve been involved as a treasurer for a number of “medium” charities in Australia. Most recently one providing free legal services to the disadvantaged, and another running a refuge for homeless youth.
As an aside, bear in mind that I as a treasurer as well as the entire board are volunteers - well qualified and experienced professionals donating their time to ensure that the organisation is run efficiently and is maximising the benefit to the community.
Your comments really grind my gears. They’re born of shallow social media type thinking. These falsehoods are commonly used as a “reason” why one ought not to donate to charities.
Certainly there are overpaid CEOs, but these are a minority. Recently the charity running the refuge got a new CEO. He had been a police superintendent. He took a pay cut of about two thirds in order to be our CEO. He said that he had spent most of his career locking people up, and wanted to spend the last part of his career changing kids trajectories before they got involved with the law.
Imagine saying that this organisation would be more efficient of it were subsumed by the government, so the CEO-equivalent could be paid 3x as much.
ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 4 months ago
bustrpoindextr@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The CEO equivalent doesn’t exist in government. Your entire argument is pointless.
Do you realize how little a CEO does?
Do you realize how little the actual money donated to an organization trickles down to the cause?
Do you realize that there are multiple charities for the same thing, which just means more and more waste?
In fact in pretty much every instance of a modern government taking over a service, it becomes cheaper and more efficient. That’s why many governments run utilities, and healthcare.
Look I’m not saying your service is useless, but I am saying it would be more efficient elsewhere.
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 4 months ago
Sorry mate you’re kind of embarrassing yourself a little bit here.
Of course the CEO equivalent exists in government. It’s just a management position. Equivalent services will need equivalent management.
Do you realize how little a CEO does?
I’ve sat on hiring committees for CEO’s. Refining their job descriptions and interviewing candidates. I know exactly what CEO’s of non-profits and charities do. I suspect that you do not.
Do you realize how little the actual money donated to an organization trickles down to the cause?
Perhaps you didn’t read my comment. I’ve been a treasurer for a number of medium size charities. I know exactly how much money is needed to support the charities objectives.
In recent years grant funding for charities has been extraordinarily difficult to obtain. Often it’s not indexed. Where grant funding is not indexed for a number of years, it becomes impossible to maintain the same services because wages and other costs are always getting more expensive. I’ve had to have that very difficult conversation with social workers - that their hours need to be reduced and as a result their client numbers will be cut. It’s a ridiculous absurdity to suggest that volunteers like myself would be taking those measures without first seeking to maximise the efficiency of the entire organisation.
Do you realize that there are multiple charities for the same thing, which just means more and more waste?
For example?
In fact in pretty much every instance of a modern government taking over a service, it becomes cheaper and more efficient. That’s why many governments run utilities, and healthcare.
You’re talking about public vs private institutions. That just doesn’t make any sense applied to charities because they’re already public institutions.
Look I’m not saying your service is useless, but I am saying it would be more efficient elsewhere.
Sorry mate, this is just an absurd thought bubble borne of naivety. Get involved in a charity and you’ll understand why it exists. Until then maybe just start with the assumption that the people who are involved have a better understanding of it’s context and it’s objectives and how best to serve those objectives than you do. It’s incredible arrogant to suppose that entire organisations ought not to exist because the people involved just haven’t realised how inefficient they are. Seriously, pull your head out of your ass.
bustrpoindextr@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Of course the CEO equivalent exists in government. It’s just a management position. Equivalent services will need equivalent management.
A CEO is not a manager. You’re already embarrassing yourself here 😉
Perhaps you didn’t read my comment. I’ve been a treasurer for a number of medium size charities. I know exactly how much money is needed to support the charities objectives.
I did read your comment, but I kinda assumed you either were lying or getting really defensive. There’s a lot of waste that wouldn’t exist if they were consolidated into the government.
Do you realize that there are multiple charities for the same thing, which just means more and more waste?
For example?
Yeah sure, since it’s already been brought to. The red cross does blood donations, but they’re only 35% of America’s non profit blood donations, there’s also America’s blood centers and vitalent and more! So much overhead! If they were all one organization, you could eliminate much of the overhead and more effectively coordinate the blood donations.
Sorry mate, this is just an absurd thought bubble borne of naivety. Get involved in a charity and you’ll understand why it exists.
Sorry mate, but you’ve got your head up your ass and you’re getting defensive.
I have been involved in both charities and government.
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 4 months ago
Goodness me. One of us is certainly getting defensive. There’s not much point continuing this. Feel free to have the last word while continuing to assume anyone with a better understanding than you is a liar.
sab@kbin.social 4 months ago
On the contrary. Many charities benefit from volunteer work hours that simply would not be possible on a normal government contract. The efficiency of some charities simply cannot be matched by State institutions, as people don't want to volunteer working for the state.
Some volunteer positions could possibly be replaced with well-paying jobs to lower unemployment rates at the benefit of the economy, but people also get a sense of purpose from volunteering. The charitable economy ran by volunteering and donations is an incredible asset for any society, no matter how great the social security net is. And in my experience, a better security net is often correlated with more charity.
bustrpoindextr@lemmy.world 4 months ago
So first off, you can totally volunteer for government things. I mean, I can volunteer at my local government library for instance, there’s nothing about a government contract that removes the ability to volunteer.
But I wouldn’t need to have volunteers if the red cross and all competing charities were swallowed up into one thing.
There are a bunch of organizations that do the same or part of what the red cross does. That’s a lot of wasted time of resources, that would be better spent lumped together as a collective unit.
Charity is simply one of the places you absolutely don’t want competition/capitalism. You want oversight and efficiency, that’s the government.
sab@kbin.social 4 months ago
I read @bustrpoindextr as not criticizing the charities directly, but rather reflect that they represent a systematic failure of government structures. We shouldn't need homeless shelters or soup kitchens - there shouldn't be homelessness or hunger. Taxation and sensible public spending should render charity unnecessary.
Which is a nice thought - I wouldn't judge people for giving their money to political interest organizations promoting solidarity rather than directly to charities.
It's a fine balance between patching the flaws of the system and trying to replace it all together. In some extreme cases charity might make the system just bearable enough that it's not overthrown, which might occasionally do more harm than good in the long run.
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 4 months ago
A refuge isn’t really a shelter for people who are “homeless”.
How would a government provide temporary accommodation to a 12 year old who is at risk of abuse?
The need for this type of refuge isn’t the product of a shitty housing market.
Note also, most of the funding comes from government agencies.