Do Your Research

When someone is asked to think of a charity relating to a specific cause, there is usually one that springs to mind first. For example, people usually think of PETA for animal rights, Autism Speaks for autism, or Susan G. Komen for breast cancer. However, none of these charities do a good job of representing the causes they claim to support, and people rarely do their research before donating.

PETA says they support animal rights, and yet they end up euthanizing the majority of the animals that they ‘rescue’. Specifically, in 2011, they took 760 dogs and 1,211 cats into their shelters, and ended up killing 713 and 1,998 respectively. In addition, many of their ads are incredibly demeaning to women, in many cases equating them with animals, as well as offensive to other groups of people. For example, this ad insults overweight people and tells them they would be thinner and therefore ‘better’ if they were vegetarian, and this one, apart from making the ridiculous claim that dairy products cause autism, implies that autism is a terrible thing to have. So, not only does PETA not support the cause that they claim to, but their ads are hurtful to other groups.

Autism Speaks is a well-known charity, and the first one that most people think of autism-related charities. However, they do not in fact do a good job of supporting autistic people. Autistic people and families of autistic people alike have listed many reasons why Autism Speaks is not a good charity. For one, Autism Speaks sees autism as a horrible disease to be cured, and refers to it as a tragedy for anyone to have to deal with. They also have no autistic people as part of their organization — how can they claim to speak for a group when they are keeping members of that group from speaking for themselves? Autism Speaks says they want to help autistic people — but in truth they want to eradicate them.

While most people know the bad things about PETA and Autism Speaks, Susan G. Komen has generally been seen as a positive organization. However, while it does in fact support the cause it says it does, the money that goes towards that cause is a lot less than people may think. In 2012, Komen decided to stop funding breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, and less than a year later, Nancy Brinker, the CEO of Komen, recieved a 64% raise, bringing her salary to $684,000. This is after Brinker had said she would step down as CEO earlier that year — which has still not happened. Komen may be using some of their money for breast cancer research, but if you make a donation, chances are the money will be going into Brinker’s pocket.

So yes, donate to charity, but make sure you know where your money is going, and make sure the charity actually does a good job of representing those it claims to support.