Wide Impacts or Deep Impacts?

In our class discussion, we mentioned the differences between creating a wide impact versus a deep impact in philanthropy.  In creating a wide impact, we are able to help give many resources to people including food, clothing, and other basic needs. However, in reaching for a deeper impact, although it may be limited in the number of people involved, the effect may be great enough to break the cycle of  poverty because those involved learn sustainable ways to live and make income. Is one method more impactful than the other? Many agree that teaching people sustainable ways to live creates a deeper impact rather than just handing them food and clothes.

I wonder how this idea affects our individual giving both domestically and abroad. In Broome County, $10,000 is not enough to eradicate poverty. However, in countries such as Kenya where Kennedy and Jessica Odede are currently running a school for girls in Nairobi, $10,000 may be able to reach more people. This idea relates greatly to my previous blog and our upcoming readings with Peter Singer and effective altruism. The question is also an issue of how wide or deep we want our impact as students to be in this philanthropy class.

The book A Path Appears reminds me a lot of my recent experiences during my missions trip to Nicaragua this winter. Through working at a boy’s vocational school called La Finca de Belen, I learned a lot about resourcefulness and humbleness. There are no social services available to the students I was working with, and the cost for school uniforms and school supplies deterred many families from sending their children to school. Thus, many of the young boys I met were forced to quit school and they began to sell drugs to make money. If not for La Finca de Belen, many of the students would be involved with gang violence, and some may not be living today. The school teaches them sustainable ways to make an income through skills such as welding and farming. Of course, we have poverty in the United States, but witnessing this type of poverty was impactful to me because even the most basic services were nonexistent in rural Chinandega. There was no clean water to drink or bathe in and, as in other countries, people are lucky to have even one meal a day. My team and I went to the school with $8,000 for supplies and plenty of helping hands. Altogether, we were able to complete a large floor for dormitories, install a water pump so the farm can finally have running water, and feed everyone who was working for the entire two weeks. There was also a significant amount of money left over for purchasing more supplies later after the team left. It seems to me that we were able to make a great impact with a limited amount of time and resources still.

Children from surrounding villages walked to the school for craft time.

Steven, Naom, and Miguel are all students at the school. 

 In Kenya, I learned through watching the Path Appears Documentary available on Netflix, that Kennedy and Jessica’s school first launched with only $10,000 from their savings. Jessica and Kennedy were in love, and she used all of her money saved from working and babysitting towards the cause of her Husband. Of course, they received numerous funding afterward making the program sustainable and successful, but I found it intriguing because as a class we also have $10,000 total to give. In Nairobi, that was enough to launch the Shining Hope Program. Could our $10,000 be enough to really spark a new program with such a deep effect in Broome County? Or are we better off funding a current program? Is it worth the risk for our class to give $7,500 to a new program with little data? Or is it possible for our money to launch something as great as Shining Hope?

        

Peter Singer suggests that it makes more sense to give money internationally because the impact may go further. In his TED Talk, this is evident as he debates whether to give to programs such a Guiding Eyes for the Blind or to international programs that can reach more people in preventing blindness through surgery. In response, I wonder if we could say that it is much easier for us to give our time volunteering in Broome County then abroad. Therefore, we can settle by helping both areas with the resources available to us. Committing time to the causes here locally that we are passionate about while also devoting some resources to people abroad who have much less.

I also find the concept of creating a wide or deep impact interesting because of the differences in the size of the organizations we are reaching out too. Some organizations are much larger such as Catholic Charities, YMCA, and Children's Home. Urban League and Lourdes Detention Alternative After School Program are much smaller. Specifically, the Lourdes program has a small capacity because "the small group size allows for more one on one interaction between staff and participants and the ability to focus on individual needs" (Lourdes Hospital). To me, I feel that this may contribute to a deep impact in the lives of the eight individuals who are vulnerable to engaging in criminal activities, and thus it may really benefit the youth involved with the organization, despite its limited capacity. Therefore, I think we need to take great consideration in the differences between how wide our potential organization reaches out versus how deep their effects are in the community when making our final decision.