I had to make a personal rule awhile ago about not supporting nonprofits that are trying to solve an issue that could actually be made worse. The incentives are too misaligned. You can't count on people to do "the right thing" on a large scale at the expense of doing "the right thing" at the scale of caring for their own/their family's livelihood.
One of the few organizations that made the cut for me is Hearts of Joy International. They help arrange lifesaving heart surgery for small children who have Down Syndrome, usually paying for the patient and one parent to travel from Uganda or the Philippines to India for the surgery.
There really isn't a way to use policy to cause more children to be born with heart defects and Down Syndrome. Nobody's at fault when that happens, and the young child who needs the surgery is as innocent as it gets.
Tangentially, I made another personal rule against supporting nonprofits that do their fundraising by focusing on how "evil" their opponents are and how dangerous things would be if the other side "wins." That's meant not supporting certain organizations even when I agree with them that what their opponents are doing is evil.
I just don't trust that any organization can overcome evil by focusing on the evil. Too many things can be justified in a "battle against evil." If you want to win, you have to be focused on the good you can do, not the evil you prevent.
One of the few organizations that made the cut for me is Hearts of Joy International. They help arrange lifesaving heart surgery for small children who have Down Syndrome, usually paying for the patient and one parent to travel from Uganda or the Philippines to India for the surgery.
There really isn't a way to use policy to cause more children to be born with heart defects and Down Syndrome. Nobody's at fault when that happens, and the young child who needs the surgery is as innocent as it gets.
Tangentially, I made another personal rule against supporting nonprofits that do their fundraising by focusing on how "evil" their opponents are and how dangerous things would be if the other side "wins." That's meant not supporting certain organizations even when I agree with them that what their opponents are doing is evil.
I just don't trust that any organization can overcome evil by focusing on the evil. Too many things can be justified in a "battle against evil." If you want to win, you have to be focused on the good you can do, not the evil you prevent.