logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | A Charitable Impulse with a Downside—Not Uncommon In Foreign Aid

Bruce S Trachtenberg
May 13, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

May 12, 2010; Source: Time | Jason Sadler says he meant no harm. He only wanted to do good. But the public drubbing he took for his recent idea to collect and donate a million used or leftover shirts and send them to people in Africa, not only chastened the 27-year-old Florida businessman, but as Time magazine recounts, the depth of anger his plan sparked showed how easily people can get inflamed about the topic of foreign aid.

As the magazine notes, “Flooding the market with free goods could bankrupt the people who already sell them. Donating clothing is a sensitive topic in Africa because many countries’ textile industries collapsed under the weight of secondhand-clothing imports that were introduced in the 1970s and ’80s.”

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

William Easterly, a New York University economics professor and author, has little sympathy for people who let their good wishes cloud their vision. He said, “I’m sorry to be so unkind to someone who has good intentions, but you don’t get a get-home-free card just for having good intentions. You have to do things that make sense. If a surgeon is about to operate on me, I’m not all that interested in whether he has good intentions.”

Some critics go even farther and say that all forms of foreign aid, whether it’s public or private, should be stopped because it is actually harming Africa. Kenyan newspaper editor Rasna Warah, who has previously written against foreign aid, said that “Africa is the greatest dumping ground on the planet. Everything is dumped here. The sad part is that African governments don’t say no—in fact, they say, ‘Please send us more.’ They’re abdicating responsibility for their own citizens.” One could say don’t give until it hurts, but also, don’t give if it’s going to hurt.—Bruce Trachtenberg

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
A Call to Funders to Defend Democracy: Why the Movement to Stop Cop City Must Continue
Jeree Thomas and Ken Chapman
How Indigenous and Environmental Coalitions Pushed for Beaver Restoration in California’s Budget
Carly Nairn
Parcel 36: The Fight for Neighborhood Green Space in San Francisco
Brandy Collins
Civil Society Undermined by Conflict, Disinformation, and Repression of Protest
Isaiah Thompson
Who’s Your Fairy Godmother
Saphia Suarez
Conservative Nonprofits Fight Student Debt Cancellation
Rithika Ramamurthy

NPQ Webinars

June 14th, 2:00pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Race for Profit

Register Now
June 22nd, 12:30 pm ET

Making Co-CEOs Work

Insights from Leaders Sharing Leadership Successfully

Register Now
July 12th, 2:00 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Tenant Organizing in Unexpected Places

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.