Skip to main content

The curse of focusing on overheads in charities




I think this is a great talk about charity. I work for two charities and live in the frustration of small scale and the desire to keep the overheads low. Now waste in overhead is always a bad thing but I cringe when I hear people being classed as overheads. Yes trim the budget on the travel by making sure people take the most reasonable train option but don't fire your face to face workers. Just because their face to face work involves talking to donors not clients. Your people are the real strength of any charity. please pay them a fair wage. If we believe non-profits serving communities deserve the best people doing the best they can. Then we need to pay a competitive wage. We can not short cut our way to success in the non-profit sector. We need to invest in growth and advertising. 

 I have two  lingering questions from this talk 

  • "Is there a limit on what is reasonable to pay a charity worker or CEO?"
  • "Can charities increase giving by they way they work or do we need a shift in cultural attitudes? Is it possible for charities to do this?" 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fishkeeping in a Cambodian Rice Field

Improving subsistence farmers diet with fish husbandry in Cambodia How can a bunch of fish ponds make a real difference? This summer I am travelling around South-East Asia, including Cambodia. In Cambodia I will be visiting some NGOs and  voluntary aid projects . I meet with our main contact this week and most of the work is focused on people projects, teaching English,  prison visits , drug addiction etc but they mentioned one project where they help rice farmers start fish husbandry projects. These projects are designed to help the local subsistence farmers grow on fish to adult size for increasing the protein component of their diet. Being interested in all forms of fish keeping I hope that when we travel to Cambodia I can visit the project or at least meet up with the team managing the project. It sounds like a fascinating and practical way to help some of the worlds poorest improve th...
2 comments
Read more

Isaac Asimov previendo el impacto de Internet - YouTube

How amazing that Asimov predicted so many of the things we are seeing today over 20 years ago. I think Isaac Asimov is the perfect example of how Sci Fi writers (either books, TV shows, movies and more) are some of the best guides to what will happen in the future, If you rewatch the 2001 space odyssey film you will A) improve your life and B) see an iPad decades before we get it in our hands. Sci Fi does a great job at both predicting and i think shaping the future! Sadly a large part of this video is dedicated to one potential benefit of the internet that Asimov is excited about but we have still not seen. The education system has still not been shaken up and we are not letting people learn in a natural discovery way or with reference to their own passions. Asimov is talking about a wide scale education overhaul which is made possible by the internet and technology. I hope that this will come true! Isaac Asimov previendo el impacto de Internet - YouTube : 'via Blog this'
Post a Comment
Read more

Another way to damage the marine world

Reading this article I am struck by how easily marine impacts are being ignored. Even within developments that relate to the marine world and explicitly use the sea as a selling point whilst slowly bringing about it's death. I know that the Arab gulf is not the only place in the world where marine ecosystems are being ruined by development but the rapid development of the mega structures on the coast could have so many unpredictable results.  Historically it seems that humans have always found it easy to ignore damage in the sea, from dumping waste to the rise of the whaling trade we just love to cause destruction. I believe we find it so easy because we simple have the attitude of out of sight out of mind.  When we cut down the rainforests it is easy to see, when we create massive landfill sites we see it when we create concrete jungles clogged with pollution we see it. But the waves cover the marine world so that most of us never notice the grow...
1 comment
Read more