Another video has gone viral recently of someone helping the homeless. This time it’s a guy dressed as a ninja sneakily dropping off food to the homeless at thanksgiving. I have to admit I chuckled a few times watching the video, as he rolled around the streets to hide food for the homeless to find. But for all the good intentions this isn’t an example of good charity, this is an example of why charity is failing.

Whether it’s a person dressing up as a ninja to give their extra food to the homeless or a person sitting with a homeless man and jamming to get donations , or an anonymous march walking past a homeless man and stopping so everyone can give money, it’s all well intentioned. But it shows us why the charity world is sometimes going backwards, why – despite the huge amounts of money involved in foreign aid – poverty and inequality are only getting worse.

Who is it really being done for?

In these videos not a single time do we learn any homeless person’s name, and most importantly not a single time do we learn about why they’re living on the streets in the first place. After giving out food or money the homeless people are filmed giving their thanks and in some cases there is a literal pat on the back for the people filming.

Those living in poverty were disempowered to begin with (in a variety of ways depending on the community and the person). Now they’re being disempowered again, often disenfranchised in the very charity that’s supposed to be helping them.

Charity risks becoming something that happens to poor people, often portrayed as helpless victims we're there to save. Roy Moore, Founder of Fairplay for All

Treating the symptoms

In this kind of free market of charities, then, the biggest charities aren’t those who have the best projects or the best ideas, they’re the charities who sell it best. Unfortunately that’s created a system where we’re being told we can save a child for $2 a day, where we become the focus of the charity. And by shining a light on the people giving, we’ve taken it away from the people we’re supposed to be helping.

The result of this is that so much charity is now just treating the symptom, not looking for the underlying disease. By giving food, giving money, whatever the handout is, as a one-off – we are only treating the symptoms, because what will happen tomorrow? That person will be hungry, thirsty, and still homeless.

And handouts can be dangerous, it can cause more damage than good. One estimate suggests that clothing donations to Africa reduced employment in the clothing industry by 50%. By giving second hand clothes we’ve flooded the market with something the local industry could never compete with. But that local industry was the chance at long-term livelihood and progress. Instead, more people are now unemployed and have become dependent on handouts. However well intentioned, giving people our leftovers can destroy people’s capacity to stand on their own – and that should be the whole purpose of charity.

The result of this is that so much charity is now just treating the symptom, not looking for the underlying disease. Roy Moore

Listen to the patient

When diagnosing a disease every doctor has to listen to their patient describe their experience. Any doctor who diagnoses the problem without ever meeting the patient, without running tests or understanding the patient’s way of life, will obviously fail in their job of finding out what the problem is. Yet this is exactly what some charities are doing.

After 21 years of school with a focus on development, a 9-year-old child who has never been to school knows more than me about what it feels like to be poor, to be hungry, much more so than I do. The children in the slum I live in know more about the value of trash, about what’s worth something – and to be honest, work much harder too.

I also doubt I could last a 16-hour shift scavenging through garbage on the dumpsite where my charity is based; climbing up and down trucks, let alone actually make any money from it. The charity can provide resources and expertise, but without involvement from the community there will be no lasting impact.

How we can make the most of what we give

The situation may seem pretty negative at this point, but truly there are so many exciting possibilities. To get there, though, we need to think deeper about charity and understand our roles better. So to finish off here are a few tips to make sure that our good intentions do what we want them to: help the people that deserve it.

~ The charity should be experts in their area. If they’re not, find someone else who is. Find out about the charity’s long-term vision. If they have no plan to break the cycle of poverty it’ll never get broken. ~ Find out how the beneficiaries are involved in designing the projects. If they’re not, that’s a red flag. Once you find the right charity, trust them. Ask them how you can help, don’t tell them what you’ll do. ~ Think about your social networks and groups, could you promote the charity at work, school or a club for a regular partnership? The charity will be experts at what they do, but you will be experts at what you do. ~ Do you and your workplace have technical expertise that could help? For example one group is helping build our website and marketing pro bono, which means we don’t have to spend and the end result is more professional. ~ If you can go and see what’s going on you’ll know exactly where and to whom your support is going. Be patient. Any donation is an investment, if it’s used well it will take time for the fruits to show. ~ Consider volunteering one day a week. The more relationship you have with the people you want to help the more meaningful it will be.

It’s great to see how much people care about some truly amazing causes. And what we give has tremendous power – it can do good but it can also do harm. That’s why we need to understand that power more.

I hope that this discussion will help kickstart how we can make sure that what we give makes the best impact possible.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Anon.

The Fairplay For All Foundation (FFA) is a not-for-profit organization working in the community of Payatas where up to 500,000 people live. Payatas is known for being the country’s largest open dump site, located in Quezon City in the Philippines. The charity runs a football team, Payatas FC, to show that when you work hard and train hard, you will win. Most of the children train barefoot, with up to 100 different children training across the different sessions. FFA also run a drop-in center to formally assess and assist the children and their families, an urban farm, and more.

For more information email Roy at: ffafoundation@gmail.com