Personally I believe that if donors had more conviction in which nonprofits were doing a great job, that their donations would be reallocated in ways that would benefit society. That’s why I’m passionate about this issue.

I feel that the real question is not whether “youth development program A is doing a better job than youth development program B”, but rather whether or not saving a life is worth more than a dance performance. If you follow the dollars, clearly our answer as donors is “no”. If we were to follow the Peter Singer utilitarian point of view- we would never let a five year old boy without access to clean drinking water die of thirst right before us in the corner market ….and rather than buying the boy a bottle of water to save his life instead turn to the teacher standing next to the boy and hand money to her to implement an after-school reading program for three of her students. We all know that anti-malarials cost $2 per day for 7 days and they will save a child’s life. Without them, a child will die. Without clean water, a child will die. Without food, a child will die. Why spend time and money determining which nonprofit is better at teaching kids how to appreciate diversity or learn science or ice skate? Instead, shouldn’t we spend time and energy to research why we, as donors, aren’t focused on saving a life above anything else?