If you want to give effectively, stop giving

If you’re like most donors, you want your giving to be effective. You hope it helps the most people possible and makes the greatest impact it can towards accomplishing a noble mission. You don’t want it to be wasted or ineffective. If that sounds like you, here’s my recommendation…

Stop giving.

If you want to give effectively, stop giving.

Now, I don’t mean this literally, but I do mean it grammatically.

As you probably know, the verb “give” comes from the noun “gift.” When you give something, that something is a gift, and when you give someone a gift, that’s the end of the transaction. You can’t hold them accountable for how they use the gift. They have the right to use it or not use it however they want, because… it’s a gift!

So, I don’t hold my niece accountable for the bumble bee scooter I got her for her birthday, right? I don’t go to her house and make sure she’s using it effectively or efficiently. You know why? Because it was a gift. In the same way, you can’t give effectively when it’s a gift.

The problem with giving starts with the word itself. If we want to give effectively, we have to stop giving to organizations and start paying them.

Start paying.

If we really want to make an impact, we have to treat charities, non-profits and ministries the same way we treat for-profit businesses, as a means to an end. They’re a service. We only pay them because they can do something that we can’t do well ourselves, whether it’s our lack of time or expertise.

I want people in South Sudan to have access to clean water, but I can’t do that myself. So I pay Aqua-Africa to do it and to do it better than I ever could. My wife can’t feed, educate and disciple little Elizabeth in Tanzania herself, so she pays Compassion to do it for her. The church in Acts wanted to make the Gospel known to other places, but they couldn’t all go. It just wasn’t feasible, and therefore it wouldn’t be effective. So they paid Paul to carry out this mission for them.

An effective perspective on giving.

Why does this little change in verbiage matter?

It matters because when you have this perspective, when you pay charities to provide a service that accomplishes a goal, you’ll naturally start to do two things:

  1) You’ll look for the organizations who can accomplish the most with your money, and

  2) You’ll hold them accountable.

If an organization doesn’t accomplish your charitable goals as effectively or efficiently as you want, you can either help them improve or find somebody else who can.

Sound familiar? That’s because this is exactly what we do with for-profit businesses! This is the exact same thing you do when you invest, when you go to the grocery store and when you get ice-cream. You find the best products or services that best accomplish your goal, and you pay them to do that.

When you have this perspective, not only will it help you give well, but it will help charities become more effective and help those in need to get better help. When the market demand set by donors is greater impact, organizations are inclined to provide a better service and be more effective. If they don’t, they’re at risk of losing your business. Consequently, when organizations provide better services and become more effective, those in need get better help.

See what I’m getting at?

When you pay organizations instead of giving to them, our donations go further, organizations get better and most importantly, those in need get the best help they deserve. It’s a win-win… win!

So, if you want your giving to be effective, if you want to help the most people possible and make the greatest impact you can, stop giving to organizations and start paying them to accomplish your shared goals.

Want to give effectively? Join us!

Join us in giving to The Collective Fund, our strategically managed pooled-giving fund. 100% of donations go to the high-impact programs in our portfolio. We do all of the research, evaluating, granting and monitoring of the programs for you. Every month, we’ll send you an impact report with portfolio updates, content and financials.

give with us

Author: Lane Kipp, ThM

Lane is the founder of All Access, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping end spiritual and physical poverty by helping you give effectively. Lane is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary with a Master of Theology (ThM) degree and a graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Ocean Engineering. Lane and his family live between Dallas and Fort Worth.

meet with Lane

‍