The Holiday Season is also the Season of Giving. Those of us with the means to do so support charitable activity that is especially important to us but want to be assured that our donations are used for those in need, not for running the business.
Unfortunately, we are solicited by hundreds of organizations; mailings and media ads confront us daily. While we are usually familiar with large national and international organizations, we may question the legitimacy of many others. Furthermore, it is clear that the marketing costs are substantial and that there is a great deal of overlap in the services that the various charities claim to provide.
It seems to me that charitable activities would be more effective and more efficient if the many organizations were not competing with one another for our donations. Merging organizations with the same goals and activities would improve logistics and, one would suspect, cut management costs. Knowing that the great majority of our donations go to the intended recipients or research would likely encourage more generosity.
