After a full semester of narrowing 71 grant applicants down to five, and closely evaluating those finalists, we’re nearing the point where we have to make our final decision, and it’s been startling to see how much the COVID-19 crisis has impacted our evaluations of the organizations. It’s raised a number of questions about how much of a role a crisis should have on donations in general, not just with this class. Two important questions that face a would-be donor are: if I were to donate right now, should I only be donating to organizations that help to fight the COVID crisis? And, is it better to wait until after the crisis so I can donate based on merit rather than urgency?
Both are legitimate questions, and I decided to give them an interesting perspective by talking to someone who works for a non-profit organization, and could actually provide an insider’s answer. My dad is the manager for email marketing and digital fundraising at the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL is a national organization that works to fight many kinds of hate and discrimination, with an extra focus on anti-Semitism. When I asked him the first question, he started off with some terminology that the ADL is using internally to describe nonprofits. The organizations that are most directly fighting the crisis are called front-line organizations. Second-line organizations are ones who are still affected by COVID and whose work does help fight the effects of it, just less directly. Finally, third-line organizations may be harmed by the effects of COVID, but aren’t involved in fighting it. The ADL is a second-line organization, in that it’s not directly fighting COVID-19, but it’s fighting some of its effects, like the rise in hateful targeting of Asian-Americans and immigrants, and the new tactics being used like Zoom-bombings. It’s helping to fight this by building coalitions of community groups, law-enforcement and legislators to work on protecting Asian-Americans against discrimination and violence, and working with the Chief Product Officer of Zoom to close security gaps against Zoom-bombers.
So clearly, there’s more nuance than just “organizations that fight COVID” and “organizations that don’t,” because second-liners are somewhere in the middle. Meanwhile, third-line organizations are a different story. Our class seems to have come to a consensus against donating to them, because we’ve placed Camp Ahwaga, a third-liner, as one of our least favored finalists to donate to. My dad says that personally he would not donate to a third-liner either, but says that if a person is worried that a third-line organization they support might go bankrupt, he could understand donating to them. Nonprofits have some fixed expenses and could go out of business, and right now many are at risk. So at the end of the day, unfortunately, he has no clear answer to the question of donating to front, second or third-liners, because it comes down to personal priorities. He says we should donate to organizations whose missions are personally important to us.
My dad has a much more clear answer to the second question, however. When I asked him if it made sense for a donor to hold onto their money until the crisis was over, so the donation could be used for the organization’s regular mission rather than the urgent temporary one, his answer was a clear no, saying, “I don’t believe in waiting until later to give, because people need your help now.” COVID-19 may feel temporary, but a lot of people are struggling because of it. There’s no such thing as a better or worse time to give.
Hannah Neusner
Hi Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post and the insight from your dad that you've shared with us. First, I just wanted to say that I think the organization that your dad works for sounds like it is doing a lot of good and raising awareness on certain issues. One of the things that I have been more concerned about during this crisis is the treatment and stigmatization towards the Asian community. A lot of incidents have occurred, even in New York, such as the incident in Brooklyn where someone threw acid in an Asian woman's face as she was taking out her trash. Although these incidents may not be as concerning for others, especially donors who are focused on donating PPE equipment to healthcare workers or on organizations that provide food for those in need, I believe that organizations such as ADL who are working to fix these problems are significant as well. While it is also very important to donate to front-line organizations, it is also important to focus on these second-line organizations whose work will have an important impact in the long-term. I think that it's important to help the crisis right now, but it is also important to make sure that the racism and harassment ends now and does not have a lasting impact after the situation with COVID-19 ends.
I also think that you raise some really important questions that also came up in our class on Tuesday, as some people were wondering about the impact our grant would have for this crisis - such as the debate between VINES/RISE and Family Planning. Some of the arguments for Family Planning was that its mission is the most relevant/urgent for the community right now, as it provides basic healthcare at little to no cost. However, others also discussed that VINES/RISE can also contribute to the community in a different way. I also agreed with the opinion that Maya brought up, that none of these organizations are really addressing the crisis directly. In relation to your blog post, I agree that none of these organizations can really be considered as "front-line organizations" but as second-
(RISE, VINES, Family Planning, Urban League) or third- line organizations (Camp Ahwaga). However, in this decision-making process, I personally felt like my decision wasn't really based on the missions being personally important to me but as what I thought could benefit the community and community growth the most (hence, my preference for local organizations and helping them develop/maintain their expenses since local organizations like VINES/RISE have a smaller budget).
I also agree with your dad's point that it is important to give now, because the crisis has put a lot of people in difficult situations whether it be financially, emotionally, or mentally and I believe that giving to any organization could greatly help a certain group of people, dependent on that organization's mission.
- Maggie
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DeleteHi Hannah! Thank you for sharing your dad's work and experience in a non-profit organization and some new knowledge and terms to go along with it. I agree there is no better or worse time to give; if you are able to help at a certain point in time, it would be beneficial to these organizations to help. I am intrigued by your second question, putting merit and urgency on a scale of when we should donate. Should we give money to organizations who need the money to continue running, or give money to organizations who ended up being successful in their goals? Both are important to consider, but overall, I find myself aligning with your dad's perspective of giving at any point, because giving is at the heart of the matter. Although it is important to be critical of how non-profit organizations strategize and develop plans, especially in urgent times like now, which we have learned through this class, sometimes people's urgent needs must be met quickly and we cannot deny them help, especially if we are privileged enough to give it. However, we, as donors and possible recipients of the benefits/help provided by non-profits, we must still remain critical of how they run and if they are staying true to their mission.
ReplyDeleteThank you again for sharing!
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ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog post. The fact that you referenced your dad throughout the paper just seemed brilliant to me. BUT I’d like to talk more about the potential psychological implications of downplaying the capability of third-line organizations. And yes, I’m referring specifically to Camp Ahwaga. First, I’d like to clarify that I never hoped that any of our money would go to this organization—especially after it cancelled its entire plans for the summer. My entire decision-making paper, in fact, was about VINES. BUT I noticed, as I normally do, how the class’s perception of Camp Ahwaga shifted from “a decent organization” to “a non-essential organization” in the space of months. It shifted from our second favorite organization to our least favorite among the five finalist organizations. This is quite understandable because it’s a third-line organization. “[It’s],” according to you, “harmed by the effects of COVID-19”. These are enough reasons why we shouldn’t donate a fraction of the $11,000 to Camp Ahwaga. And, I think, the class made the right decision. Camp Ahwaga is currently struggling, and I can’t and won’t deny that. BUT that doesn’t mean that we should label Camp Ahwaga, among several other third liners, as third-class organizations. I’m not here to talk about social-science. I’m just revealing how the COVID-19 pandemic has skewed most people’s perception of third-line organizations. Merit and urgency, according to Natalie Pompi, shouldn’t be our major deciding factor in this time of crisis!
ReplyDeleteYou also stated that “there’s no such thing as a better or worse time to give”. I strongly disagree with this claim. I wrote in my previous blog post that “there’s no better time in the world for philanthropists to step up”. I understand why you made that statement though. I think what you’re trying to say is that the COVID-19 pandemic shouldn’t be our primary driving factor. We should also donate to organizations that attend to those in need when the pandemic is over. This is understandable. BUT we shouldn’t ignore the fact that people are struggling now more than ever. “We,” according to the United Nations, "are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations". To them, “It is a human, economic and social crisis”. It turns out that there is a better, maybe not worse, time to give to those in need.
Again, your blog post definitely caught my attention.
Reference: https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/everyone-included-covid-19.html
Hi Hannah! Thank you so much for sharing this blog post. It’s so cool that you have a first-hand perspective of what non-profits are going through. I was also really struggling with these questions when choosing an organization. I really did not want this new crisis to have a lot of weight when making a decision because all of them are struggling. It was already difficult to deem what was more of a need in the community without COVID-19 and give in accordance to that. I think the way that they are categorizing organizations is efficient. The only worry I see with this system is the difference between a second-line organization and a third-line organization. Mainly, what is considered an “effect” of COVID-19 that a second-line organization would fight? In my perspective, every aspect of life is being affected by this pandemic so it’s difficult to say what is specifically an effect. I see all of our finalist organizations as second-line organizations, with the exception of Camp Ahwaga. None of them are directly addressing the pandemic and this is definitely something I struggled to come to terms with. How should I advocate for an organization that is not directly addressing probably the most pressing issue right now? I agree with your dad that we shouldn’t hold out on giving the money because there are still people in need right now. With Camp Ahwaga especially, I can see how we would be “waiting until later” if we gave to them because the whole thing that their organization does is not even happening this year. But in all honesty, Camp Ahwaga will probably be the organization impacted the most financially, and our donation could potentially save them from shutting down. I think overall, this really just brings us back to the question that we asked in the beginning of the year of funding long-term or short-term effects. Again, great blog post, and thank your dad and ADL for me for addressing the Asian-American racism that has come through this pandemic.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was very interesting to me because it made me reflect on my own decision making process and draw connections between what your father explained and the criteria I used to consider our finalists. I ultimately decided to support Rise and VINES because I felt that they were addressing problems associated with Covid more directly than the other options. With the anticipated rise in domestic violence as a result of social distancing it is clear that Rise is a second-line organization. Vines is as well because they are working to address food insecurity that is occuring as a result of Covid. We all experienced an added level of stress when making our final decision due to our current circumstances, but thinking about it in this way definitely helped me rationalize my top choices. Thank you for your perspective!
Hi Hannah, thank you for your insightful post. I like the questions you raised at the beginning and they echoed my thoughts as well. I like your dad's descriptions and it's very interesting. I agree with him that people should not wait to donate. It's tough to decide between donating for a cause directly related to COVID or to something you would usually donate to. In our case, I could see that most of the class were swayed by COVID19 and donated towards first-line organizations. For example, VINES pretty much directly help people with food insecurity and that problem has been amplified during this time. I'm sure third-line organizations now have an added struggle since most people will probably donate to first and second organizations. Thank you for your post and it helped me clarify some terms and ideas.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Hannah! It's really cool that you were able to connect this class with your dad's work. The terminology for front-line, second-line, and third-line are very useful for describing the charity organizations we've been considering. It's interesting how they factored into our final decision, as we ended with second-line organizations as our top picks. However, the pandemic started after we had already narrowed down our many options to only five, and I wondered if we would have chosen differently if we had been dealing with the pandemic from the start. Looking back at our initial list of applicants, I didn't really see any that would have been front-line coronavirus fighters, but I thought the Rural Health Network of SCNY and Meals on Wheels of Western Broome could be great second-line options. Although I only briefly glanced over them, it's interesting to think that they may have become a grantee had the situation been different. Nonetheless, the organizations we chose are going to do great work with our grants.
ReplyDeleteI also like your dad's point that we should generally give now and not hold our money for later. At first, I was going to say that I think it goes against what we learned about disaster philanthropy earlier in the semester. But I think the two concepts can work together. For me, the point of the disaster philanthropy articles was that we should remember that second-line organizations have an enduring need for support long after an immediate crisis has happened in order to adequately help people with the after-effects of that crisis. So we should donate to them later, but that doesn't mean we have to hold on to money we have now and wait. Like your dad said, we should give now. If we have the opportunity to give again in the future, we should consider the same second-line organizations again.
Hi Hannah I really enjoyed this post! These same questions were in my head as we were selecting finalists, and I really wanted to avoid giving to an organization just because of COVID, but those that are helping with the crisis are very essential in lessening its impact. Hearing your dad's perspective was very interesting, and I think you have the idea of "second-liners" down perfectly. This crisis definitely makes giving more difficult, but also even more important as people as well as non-profits are facing harsh struggles. I also agree with your dad saying we should give now and not wait, as our money could be going to people who need it right now as opposed to sitting around waiting for the perfect moment. And one could even argue that with corona virus tearing through the nation, now is that perfect moment. I think we balanced these considerations well in our grant selection, but these considerations will continue to be even more important as the crisis goes on. Overall, awesome post and I appreciate the great work your dad is doing at ADL!
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