Choosing between charities

Choosing between charities

There are various ways in which we can distinguish between charities on the basis of the cause they're promoting.

One ethicist has suggested that the following principles might guide our giving. The list is based on the fundamental principle that:

• The most morally important action is to save life

If you agree with that then the rest follows quite naturally:

• Giving to 'luxuries' (charities that support cultural activities like the arts) is less morally valuable than giving to charities that save life or provide other necessities for life
• It's morally better to give to charities that help those in the greatest need
• When choosing between such charities we should prefer those that offer the greatest certainty that our gifts will get to the people in the greatest need, and will really help those people
• It is not morally better to focus on the needs of those in our own group or country over others - the only relevant criteria are the relative need of recipients and the efficiency of delivery

This list could be adapted for other starting goals: for example, to create a world where a certain bad thing (war, rape, etc) does not happen, one can focus one's efforts on the methods most likely to have the greatest impact.

Drawback

The list sets out criteria by which we can rank and evaluate charities, but does not help with that process.

This may have the indirect effect of challenging a common preference to give money rather than time, by instead making us consider and research our giving.