“Tomorrow is the last day to donate boxes of sanitary pads for the girls in Kenya.”First, let me just say that I have no doubt of the importance of the need that this project is trying to fulfill. I commend the good intentions behind it and hope they collect mounds (mountains even) of pads.
I would like to join in the generous giving, but that requires that I (1) go to a store, (2)find a product I have never purchased before, (3)wait in line with femine products, (4)pay for the products, (5)pack them to campus, and (6)parade them around school before depositing them in the “labeled” box (no pun intended). In order for me to contribute to this project I must incur a cost considerably higher than the actual value of the sanitary pads. I will be the first to praise those who overcome those costs, but should I feel guilty if I find the costs to be excessive? Can you blame me?
I think two lessons can be learned here:
- Inkind transfers are not an efficient means of raising donations. There are exceptions to this rule—for instance, Kinkos may be more likely to donate $100 worth of printing to a project than $100 cash. But this project is certainly not an exception…unless you are soliciting Tampax.
- Even the most well-intentioned plans can yield poor results. Good intentions are often a necessary condition for positive outcomes, but rarely suffient.
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