The Long Tail of Charity

I’ve just been introduced to a fantastic new site, GlobalGiving.com, which gives anyone the opportunity to give to small, high impact, grassroots projects around the world. It’s a great idea.

Even though my knowledge of international development is limited, one thing I have always been aware of when travelling and meeting people who are doing socially concious work “on the ground” is how scathing many are of large NGOs and how much of these organisations’ money is sucked into bureaucracy and management. I don’t mean to discredit what these organisations do, but in some cases this structure is obviously not the most efficient.

When in Cambodia I met some incredibly committed people who were raising money in Canada, then physically taking it to Cambodia and spending it on sending children to the doctor, sending them to school, trying to find ways to get them away from living on rubbish tips and all sorts of other direct action. You couldn’t help but be impressed by the directness of what they were doing. After I met these guys I decided I’d much prefer to give my money directly to them than to any of the large NGOs, just because I knew it was going to have a real, direct impact.

Globalgiving seems to me a formalised way to search for these kinds of projects and give directly to them. What I find interesting about this is that it’s another example of how the internet is helping to create a long tail economy - this time in the charity / NGO sector. It exactly parallels the changes going on in other forms of commerce, one great example being the music industry. Maybe givers and charities don’t need huge NGOs quite so much these days, in the same way that musicians and listeners don’t need great big record companies.

UPDATE: Response to my post from Dennis Whittle of Global Giving.