Change the way you think about charity!

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This weeks blog post was inspired by an video/bio link http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html?utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter&utm_content=addthis-custom&utm_source=t.co&awesm=on.ted.com_hTvR&utm_campaign=&source=twitter#.UUeCOjnDZow.twitter

posted by @cammilleN

The topic of discussion for speaker Dan Pallotta was our view of charities and how it is “dead wrong”. I think those words are what drew me to this video. It is a video posted on the www.ted.com website, which is a nonprofit organization that is “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading”. I use those words directly from the website because they are the most accurate. If you have never visited this site please do. You are sure to find something that will interest you in regards to innovations and ideas.

Watching the video I realized that I had the same thought process Mr. Pallotta was speaking against. We expect charities to make a difference but we don’t want them to spend any of the donated money on building the charity itself. We expect all of our donations to go towards the cause not the organization. This way of thinking is old and outdated and Mr. Pallotta gives several point and examples in his presentation to prove this. What’s worse is they all make tremendous sense. If we expect these charities to reach a larger number of people we have to allow the charities to use some of the donated money to grow, expand and advertise.

I know that sounds crazy but think about it. If you see and ad for a restaurant in town you might try it just because its new, or even an old restaurant that has new food. If you never hear or see any advertisement about a local charity how are you going to know they need donations or volunteers? The more information that is in the consumers view the more attention the organization gets. The more attention an organization gets the more money it receives. We all know this to be true. Why then do we feel so negatively when charities spend money on advertising and fundraising? Politicians spend billions of dollars on these two same things yet we don’t get as upset. Why have we gone this long with this same thought process?

Mr. Pallotta speaks from experience; he created the multi-day Breast Cancer events and the AIDS Rides that bring in millions of donations each year because he invested money into advertising and fundraising. I can see his points very clearly and I have changed my thought process on how I view charities. I am going to start looking at what charities get done instead of what they spend money on.