Introduction
Charity is a particularly valuable and essential aspect of all humanity. Many people in the world are in need and live in appalling conditions. They cannot access such valuable resources as food, water, and knowledge. Thus, the primary goal of charitable organizations is to provide essential assistance to these representatives of society.
However, there are many examples of such initiatives that do not cause benefits but can only lead to harm. An example of such a charity is PlayPumps, which was initiated in African communities. Studying how PlayPumps has transformed its activities from inefficient to proper is valuable for understanding how these organizations should work to provide the most significant benefit to those in need.
Ineffective Charity
At the initial presentation, PlayPumps was a great success both among the people for whom it was created and among the general public. The basis was that “children play on a specially designed roundabout, water is drawn up through a connected borehole to the surface” into a storage tank, making valuable recourse available for people (Wood para. 2). However, it quickly became clear that the implemented measure had more of a negative impact than a positive one.
Residents reported that past water pumping tools were much more convenient and were not difficult to maintain and repair. Breakdowns occurred due to the frequent use of the device by children. This initiative also raised concerns about using child labor to obtain clean water. Therefore, the seemingly successful PlayPumps initiative turned into an ineffective charitable implementation.
Application of Managerial Economics to Assessment of Effectiveness
Managerial economics provides unique insight for analyzing the problem under study. This approach focuses on the fact that all that matters is happiness from the objects of benevolence. An important criterion is that it should be rational; hence, on the one hand, PlayPumps had a reasonable goal of improving people’s living conditions, but it “was getting in the way of better solutions” (Wood para. 4).
This factor determines that revised possible measures were necessary to change this aspect. Therefore, the company could finance scientific research instead of attracting children and creating a specialized playground. With the help of the information received, it could direct efforts to create enterprises or installations that would create a system for providing safe water.
There are many ways to obtain funding for this type of project. The most important may be disseminating awareness about the problem and holding charity events. It is vital to note that “while high monetary incentives result in the greatest immediate increase in funds raised, they crowd out future intentions to volunteer once incentives are withdrawn” (Haruvy and Popkowski Leszczyc 284). PlayPumps could attract external funding and volunteer work to create the most comfortable conditions for needy people.
Conclusion
In conclusion, charity does not always have the expected results and can quickly become ineffective. This problem may result from the preliminary study of all points of the issue, which it wants to limit and consider a limited number of options. PlayPumps, instead of providing a way to get clean water, led to the physical exhaustion of children playing on their playground and caused difficulties for the population, who had to deal with various structural breakdowns. The result was the growing discontent of people regarding the charity building. Changing the direction towards exploring alternative ways of providing valuable resources and funding necessary for the construction and research would be much more effective and beneficial for the vows of the charitable initiative.
Works Cited
Haruvy, Ernan, and Peter Popkowski Leszczyc. “A Study of Incentives in Charitable Fundraising.” European Journal of Marketing, vol. 56, no. 1, 2021, pp. 283-317.
Wood, Caroline. “Do Many Charities Fail to Help People?” Giving What We Can, 2022, Web.