40: “Seek ye out of the best [podcasts]”: Charity 101

The Rational Faiths Podcast - Keeping Mormonism Weird

Starting on Oct 21, 2014 the group of Rational Faiths bloggers initiated a fundraising effort for the Liahona Children’s Foundation. We pledged to support a LCF “stake”, which means we needed to raise $6,000 from our own pockets and from our generous readers and listeners in order to feed 100 malnourished children. We selected the Ta Khmau area of Cambodia to support and are super excited to announce that the donations we have collected thus far have exceeded the goal of $6,000. As of December 29, 2014 the total amount of donations was up to $8,280. I know there are a handful of donations still being processed so the number will go up a bit more. This means even more children will be fed and taken care of. So give yourself a pat on the back and just feel good because it is you, reader/listener, that has made this possible.

Meet Soknet and her husband. Soknet is the monthly coordinator for the Ta Khmau area and makes sure that the children receive the nutritional supplement and gives any additional training that is needed to mothers. She also helps organize the screenings that take place every six months. We are so glad to be providing the resources for this great work. We look forward to future updates in the Ta Khmau area and will share them as we receive word on the progress of the children we are supporting.

In this podcast we discuss the project of raising funds for LCF and what sort of expectations we had at the onset and what the potential is for supporting the Ta Khmau stake the following year as well as possibly expanding our commitment. While joining in the effort to alleviate suffering and eliminate poverty via the LCF, we have learned more about ourselves and how we view charitable donations. In the remaining portions of the podcast discussion, we talk about a fantastic TEDTalk that claims that our view of charity is dead wrong, and an article that illustrates how good intentions sometimes end up producing bad results (see links below). We also discuss ways that charity work is done right, specifically by committing to a particular group or cause rather than spreading your effort or funds thinly to a variety of good causes.

The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong

Stop Trying to Save the World

*The featured image at the top of the post is a family that has received aid from the donations made via RationalFaiths.