Don’t give money to Haiti

As a professional in fundraising, I’ve learned first hand the struggles that non-profits have spending restricted funds. All too often, programs that have no needs for more funds struggle to use the money given to them, while programs under the same non-profit umbrella struggle to make their ends meet.

It’s human nature to want to believe that in the wake of a major disaster, we can all do our bit to help just by giving generously. And if there’s a silver lining to these tragedies at all, it’s that they significantly increase the total amount of money donated to important charities by individuals around the world. But if a charity is worth supporting, then it’s worth supporting with unrestricted funds. Because the last thing anybody wants to see in a couple of years’ time is an unseemly tussle over what happened to today’s Haiti donations, even as other international tragedies receive much less public attention.