Reuter's Felix Salmon Says "Don't Donate to Japan"

Reuter's Felix Salmon has stirred up cyberspace with his blog post, "Don't Donate to Japan." To summarize, Salmon believes that too many times people are stirred up by a disaster and earmark their donations for that specific disaster, rather than letting the organizations determine how to use the donations. He also points out that certain organizations don't have any plan as to how these funds will be distributed; Japan is a rich country and doesn't need money. He specifically mentioned GlobalGiving as an organization that did not have any plans in place for distributing aid.

Posters hated his blog, loved it, or had mixed feelings about the title

Global Giving Response

Hi Felix,
My name is Kevin Conroy and I work for GlobalGiving.org. Thank you for raising these questions as we also agree it's important to make sure that international aid, be it for a disaster or another cause, is done in an efficient, transparent manner.

GlobalGiving has a long history of raising funds for international disasters and disbursing them to high-impact organizations. For instance, here are all of the projects we supported after the Haiti earthquake.http://www.globalgiving.org/haiti-earthq uake/ As a part of our platform, we require all projects to post reports noting what we've done with the funds. You can read about the impact these projects had here:http://www.globalgiving.org/haiti-earthq uake-updates/

For Japan, we set up a fund to collect donations from the public and will be distributing those funds to a variety of organizations on the ground. As of this moment, these funds with go to International Medical Corp, Save the Children, and Mercy Corps and their partner Peace Winds Japan. We are also sourcing grassroots organizations in Japan that are NOT getting the same kind of media coverage that the Red Cross is getting. It is our goal to support community-based efforts around the world and provide transparent updates. We will be posting more details to our fund as they become available.

We are very happy to discuss this with anyone. Feel free to email me at kconroy@globalgiving.org or tweet at us at http://www.twitter.com/GlobalGiving.

Thanks,
Kevin Conroy
GlobalGiving

Other Posters' Opinions on this blog:

Felix is right. He may have chosen an unnecessarily provocative headline, but the sad truth is that highly visible 'tear-jerk' catastrophes are usually exploited - exploited in the form of unofficial/unauthorized charitable organizations and even computer malware that pop up overnight to prey on peoples' desire to offer up a credit card number and make a donation. DO give, and give generously. But give to established and credible organizations that know how to distribute help efficiently, and to where it is needed most.

Posted by MXA |

This is exactly why American politics is completely idiotic and Americans should feel ashamed of themselves for running a Reality TV show instead a working government. Americans are only moved by shock value. Felix is so correct is everything he says. Does anyone know how many more children will die this year than all the victims in the Tsunami combined? Lets 8 million divided by (lets give a high estimate 30,000) = 266.667 times more people die every year due too malnutrition and poverty. Where's the America people in this disaster that happens every year?

Vilofern says "We live on one world and we should all be helping each other!!!!"
You are correct so why are you ignoring the millions of children dying every year due too hunger?

To all those naysayers the point is people die every day from easily preventable means. If Americans spent all the money they spend on losing weight, on feeding the poor, not one person would be hungry tonight. Unless its on Fox news or CNN Americans could give a....

Posted by AndySprague

I am very heartened by the dialogue I see here - both Mr. Salmon's provocative title and statement, and the reaction from readers both outraged and otherwise.

As a firefighter who responds regularly to medical emergencies and natural disasters both within my community and nationally, I can attest that we have underinvested in the logistical tools for efficient response. Over and over, we've all seen the photos of food rotting in depots while victims suffer in the field. Relief organizations never get the funding they need to prepare for the next disaster. We would do well to show our compassion by allowing relief organizations to exercise their own judgement to invest in disaster response infrastructure, rather than earmark funds to assuage our own discomfort at seeing tragic photos every few months. More disasters will come, and we will forever be stuck in a pattern of a disorganized, too little-too late response unless we change our approach.

Posted by earthshiva

This is what Fox News and CNN do to people: we are completely unable to read past the headline. I lived in Japan for three years, worked very closely with several NGOs both in the US and in Japan, so I have a pretty good grasp of the political/NGO landscape in both countries, and have great sympathy for the Japanese people.
I struggle to understand the outrage here. The point of the article is simple: let NGOs and governments manage their own activities without hamstringing them by giving restricted donations. What's the problem with that?
Some relief orgs jump on disasters as fundraising opportunities before they have a plan in place. Good to know. THAT's the take away here.
If the Kobe earthquake is any indicator, the strongest relief organization in Japan may be the Yakuza. Donate money to them - they run a tight ship.

Posted by newsjunkee

Many posters who responded to his blog were outraged.

Yes, I know you mean well in trying to tell the people to channel their donations to the right charities as there are always scammers at times like this, but your timing is lousy. I feel this is nothing but a cheap publicity stunt of yours to draw more readers to your column. But you have just lost one fan of yours with such an irresponsible article. What is one fan to you? Well, don't be surprised that there are more people who share my opinion and instead of gaining popularity you'll be at the losing end.

Don't be so proud of your donation, I think you could have come up with something bigger. I'm proud to tell you that some of my favorite Korean actors and celebrities have donated millions to the relief fund without any hassle at all, to be exact 5 million US$.. They just have big hearts. They do not choose what charities to donate to for the sake of publicity but to the immediate disaster in the news today, which happens to be Japan.

You seem to forget that every time something happens around the world, Japan is always called upon to give aid in money and now that they need it in return, you are suggesting that everyone should just watch and do nothing just because Japan is a wealthy country. In other words, everyone should look the other way, how very sad indeed!

eidelweiss99

You seem to have a poor memory. Let me remind you of what happened in the USA during Hurricane Katrina. Donations exceeded $108 million during the crucial first four days. IS THE UNITED STATES A POOR COUNTRY? WHY DID THE WORLD HAVE TO HELP AMERICA? THEY COULD HAVE JUST STOOD BY AND WATCHED BECAUSE THE USA IS A RICH COUNTRY.LIKE JAPAN.

Here, I would like to mention about the contributions the USA received from Japan especially, to make my point clearer. More than $1.5 million was collected from private donations. The government of Japan donated $200,000 in cash to the American Red Cross and some $800,000 in relief supplies - from blankets to generators. Japanese firms with operations in the United States donated some $12 million in total, including Honda Motor Corporation ($5 million), Hitachi ($1 million) and Nissan (more than $750,000).
Special mention must be made of the generosity of one Japanese individual - Takashi Endo - who donated $1 million from his personal funds to Katrina relief efforts, said he was moved when, during a business trip to London, he saw a televised report about a mother separated from her children in the chaos of the flooding in New Orleans. The story so disturbed him he could not sleep that night; the next morning he resolved to do something to help.

The Japanese Red Cross Society, in addition to acting as a major conduit for individual and corporate donations to Katrina relief, donated $200,000 of its own funds to support hurricane relief activities of its sister organization, the American Red Cross. All three Japanese international air carriers (ANA, JAL, NCA) offered free use of empty cargo capacity to transport relief supplies to the United States.
You even criticized the Socks for Japan, drive which I don't find very funny at all. If you really understand our Asian way of life/culture you will know that we take off our shoes before entering the house and we will then walk around the house in our socks or bedroom slippers so that we do not dirty the house. We even keep spare slippers for the use of our visitors. Socks also keep the feet warm in cold weather. So it is not at all silly or wasteful at all as you put it, as the socks will be put to good use I'm sure. Call yourself cultured, I don't think so.

I suggest that you make an apology for your uncalled for remarks as they are very sensitive.

What a poorly thought out article.

First of all, where is your compassion Felix? If you had such tragic events take place in your life which were beyond your control, would you not want someone to help you? As a Reuters blogger, you probably make a decent living but if your home, family and livelihood were wiped out in one go, would you not want someone to feel some compassion for you? Should one just think that just because once you had success you should be left to fend for yourself?

There are many problems in the world. We should all try to help those who are less fortunate. If one is moved to help a country because the monumental misfortune it has experienced, why discourage it? (BTW, I'm sure if I was one of the people that lost everything and was sitting in the freezing cold, I would appreciate a pair of socks.) Every little bit helps.

If you want to help, you can look at http://www.charitynavigator.org and be more informed about how your money is spent. Charities are rated on how much of your $ goes directly to the need vs. administrative / fundraising costs. I recently gave to Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children. I would like my money to go specifically to Japan and I see nothing wrong with that. If an organization has money earmarked for Japan, then that also means that their other monies can be spent in other places.

Unfortunately, there will never be enough money to solve the problems in the world. Let people help in the ways they can. Every act counts, whether big or small. Who knows- -perhaps a Japanese person who is helped with charity this year will end up helping someone elsewhere because he will remember the help he got. Giving of any kind should never be discouraged.

Posted by sakaenyc

Sources:

Felix Salmon, Don't Donate Money to Japan, Reuters, Blog, March 14, 2011