Immoral philantrophy?
 

Is it immoral to only donate to charities that only help people of a certain race? For example, the Mercaz is an organisation attempting to help mainly Jews. I feel it is a good cause as it helps my people who I feel are discriminated against by other charitable organisations around the world. So in a sense, to counter-act that discrimination, I discriminate by only donating to Jewish charities. Is this immoral, or just human nature to "look out for your own"?

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

It's no more immoral than donating money for cancer research instead of giving it to help cure Jerry's kids.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

c'mon don't be silly. This is why I hate the word "discrimination". Yes you are discriminating. No it's not immoral. Tactful discrimination is an important skill in life.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

I don't see what the problem would be. You're helping people by giving money to charities. As such, any charity that gets your money will always help some people and not others. I wouldn't blame a cancer survivor from donating all of his or her charity money to cancer research or to help people with cancer. The bottom line is that it's your money so you can decide whom to help. As you say looking out for your own is pretty standard in terms of donating.

Also, not sure that it's relevant but I'm pretty sure antidiscrimination/civil rights laws don't affect charitable organizations.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

I think, the act itself is not wrong, but obviously it depends on your mindset. For instance, if you would have donated to a regular charity, but decided not to because your money might be going to a black person, and then decided to donate to a pro-white charity because of that, then that is fairly racist. Whether or not that's immoral is up to you I guess.

But if you just donate to a jewish charity because you're jewish, I don't see a problem.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

Shouldnt charity go to most in need in general? This was of allocating charity monies clearly goes against that.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

No it shouldn't, it should go wherever you think it best serves. Think of it like an investment. Choose where you donate wisely. Picking something close to your heart is completely valid. It carries some meaning for you, helps a cause you believe in, and might brighten up your day.

Besides, "the most in need" is pretty arbitrary, isn't it? How would that be defined? By whoever screams the loudest?

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

Is it immoral if you specifically exclude Jewish charities because you hate Jews?

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Shouldnt charity go to most in need in general? This was of allocating charity monies clearly goes against that.

[/ QUOTE ]

In theory you are probably right, but how do you decide most in need? Are cancer charities higher or lower than diabetes charities? Is sponsoring a child in Africa more important than sponsoring a child in South America? Trying to decide who needs it the most is a pretty slippery slope.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

I try not to give to cancer charities like breast cancer because as a function of how many people are affected by it, vs other illnesses, it is way overfunded. Not that it is a bad cause at all, just more good can come from donating to other forms of research.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

He isn't probably right, it's a completely wrong outlook.

Maybe I'm jaded from spending a lot of time working with the community service center when I was in college, and thus working closely with some charities and some wacky ideologues. I was very picky about what projects I wanted to get involved in. My selection criteria was asking myself these 3 questions:

1. Is this an important cause? (both in general and to me)
2. Is the project run effectively?
3. Will I enjoy working on it?

If any of these 3 was a resounding "no", I didn't waste my time. Some in the office found me to be a nuisance because of this. Others loved me though because the work I did do, I did very well.

You can apply similar criteria to your donation efforts. If you're handing out money to causes just based on need, you might as well sign off your ownership to your money. It's YOUR money. You need to put it to work as how you see fit.

And to reiterate: "need" is too slippery a slope. So you decide cancer is the worthiest cause. Well, which organization? They're all begging for money. They all "need" it. A lot of charitable organizations are big rackets, IMO. They're either inept and inefficient, or very corrupt.

So you narrow it down by picking causes close to you, and making informed decisions within that. That's how effective philanthropy and charity efforts work. Informed decisions made by the donors, based on personal beliefs and a strong assessment of those they donate to.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

Immoral is the wrong word here, you are probably looking for 'self-interested' or 'discriminatory'.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

ah,

This is not directly related to your question, but a big part of the reason I give charity and volunteer is to make myself feel good. This element of self-interest influences where I decide to devote my resources. Nothing immoral aobut that.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I try not to give to cancer charities like breast cancer because as a function of how many people are affected by it, vs other illnesses, it is way overfunded. Not that it is a bad cause at all, just more good can come from donating to other forms of research.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if any charity is overfunded, but I see what you mean. I like to give to charity a couple of times a year, but since my own finances are tight, I can't give as much as usual. I found a couple of small charities and gave them $50 each. Not a lot of money, but what I could afford. My rationale was that $50 could help a small (5 room group home), a lot more than it could help a huge charity.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

[ QUOTE ]
ah,

This is not directly related to your question, but a big part of the reason I give charity and volunteer is to make myself feel good. This element of self-interest influences where I decide to devote my resources. Nothing immoral aobut that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly, and I think it does address his question. This was the struggle I had with people in the social work sector. Many try their hardest to act like this isn't the case, as if it subtracted from the cause. This element of self-interest is what creates a lot of success when it comes to non-profits and volunteering.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

Last point for a while as I'm posting too much in this thread:

"I don't know if any charity is overfunded, but I see what you mean."

Of course it can be. When a non-profit has a large budget, it finds ways to spend the money, and often ineffectively. Note, I'm not commenting specifically on any cancer foundations, as I'm not sure of the details there. Just a general point.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I try not to give to cancer charities like breast cancer because as a function of how many people are affected by it, vs other illnesses, it is way overfunded. Not that it is a bad cause at all, just more good can come from donating to other forms of research.

[/ QUOTE ]
A bit off-topic, but reading this made me think. Is there any merit to the idea that because a scientific endeavour is "overfunded" that you will actually do MORE good by donating to that one rather than something else that is "underfunded" and will probably continue to remain so, since making any significant scientific progress in areas like cancer research are so ridiculously expensive?

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

It depends on your idea of what is moral.

If you believe it to be immoral to use resources wastefully, then you're obligated to do the maximum good with the money or time you devote to charitable causes. If not, doing good is doing good and there's nothing immoral about it, regardless of how you discriminate between charitable causes.

Re: Immoral philantrophy?
 

I typically only give to help out Vietnam Vets and Wounded Warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. Is this immoral because these are who I feel are more deserving? No. Is it immoral because I am also a Vet? No. Am I biased? Yes. I also donate to cancer research. Also not immoral.

We donate to certain charities because many times we ourselves have been affected by these same problems or situations. Not because we are immoral, but it is because we feel strongly about these issues. My dad is a Vietnam Vet, Iraq for me, and cancer seems to run in the family. We cant help out every charity, so we make a choice, and choices are based on our life experience and those people around us.