Redundant Charities
by Weh Yeoh
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Pub Date 27 Sep 2023 | Archive Date 22 Sep 2023
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Description
It’s a good cause…or is it?
Is a charity worth supporting if it continues to exist perpetually?
When does a charity ever end?
How does it know that the job is done?
Charities aren’t geared to ever stop. They’re geared to continue. The fundamental design of charities hasn’t shifted much since their inception decades ago. But, in a number of grassroots charities, change is afoot.
These are charities that defy the limitations of this design by setting end goals and clear exit strategies. They are more interested in finishing the job than creating dependency. They are more interested in shutting down than growing.
These charities are known as Redundant Charities. In this book, Weh Yeoh builds on his experience working globally with international and grassroots charities.
This book is for those looking for a new approach to charity work. An approach that starts by recognising that a successful charity is one that makes themselves redundant.
Advance Praise
"“Bold and counterintuitive. Redundant Charities will make you rethink the business of giving and have you questioning whose interests are really served. An important read for anyone who cares about inequality”
Antoinette Lattouf, broadcaster, columnist
and author of How to Lose Friends and Influence White People
“A much-needed antidote to the corporate thinking and big-is-better mentality that have come to plague the non-profit industrial complex. Weh yeoh shows how charity work could be better: more self-aware, more far-sighted, and ultimately more effective. Anyone who works for a non-profit, or aspires to, should read this book.”
Sebastian Strangio
Author of Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond
“Made me reconsider everything I thought I believed about charities”
Claire Wilcock, communications specialist
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9780645728002 |
| PRICE | US$14.95 (USD) |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Dora Archie O, Reviewer
For someone who is working in the non-profit sector, this book was an interesting take on the need for charities and non-profits to engage in sustainable development- so that in the long run they take a step back and the beneficiaries and communities they were supporting are able to survive without their direct involvement.
The author provides case studies of people in the sector- who were able to step back and it was great reading those in the last part of the book.
I could relate to some factors highlighted in the book, like the non-profit's growth and scale metrics and how this affects impact and efficiency, there was also the bit of getting caught in a hamster wheel of funding, and meeting demands of the funder and the cycle becomes more about keeping the systems running but not the focus or the vision alive.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
Reviewer 901546
As someone who has worked in international assistance in various capacities and for a variety of organizations, I really appreciate this book and some of the hard truths it calls out about this industry (yes, it is an industry). I have long felt that international assistance organizations, especially those in the global north/western world, should have as part of their mandate the goal of closing down because they are no longer needed.
There reality is that these organizations celebrate growing, taking on more projects, hiring more staff (who are often located in the global north) and do little to prepare to transfer capacity, knowledge, resources, etc. to local communities.
Moreover, many organizations don't seek to change the causes of the poverty that they aim to address because the causes are often a result of government policies and decisions. Charities often don't want to engage with governments and lobby for change because they want to be neutral. But poverty isn't neutral.
Really liked this book and have already been recommending it to colleagues and others who work in international assistance.
