Here is a list of last years’ winners.

And here is a link to this year’s nomination process.

In case you’re trying to remember posts on this blog, here is a list of my most popular posts from last year.

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Incomes, needs, rights, sponsorship and cash transfers - Wait… What?!

Haiti shows why poor communication stalls relief –report - Alert Net

A Seat at the Table: a Twitter-ful list of women crucial to foreign policy - The Levo League

Should you or shouldn’t you volunteer at a Cambodian orphanage? - Expat Living

Half The Sky; On The Ground – Webbed Feet - Interesting timeline and perspective on Kristof’s writing on sex trafficking.

My development blogging 2011 review – Development as anthropological object – an overview of development blogging in 2011.

TEN BIGGEST POSITIVE AFRICA STORIES OF 2011 – The New Yorker

How Ethiopia’s Adoption Industry Dupes Families and Bullies Activists - The Atlantic

Thoughts on doing no harm - Tim Hoiland - looks at two books on smart giving aimed at a religious audience.

The Truth About Foreign Aid – penelope m.c. – On a BBC 3-part podcast on foreign aid.

Donated Pills Make Some Charities Look Too Good On Paper - Forbes – on the over-valuing of medicine by nonprofits to improve their admin ratio.

Story Update – Three Cups of Deceit – Krakauer tracks the ongoing shenanigans over at CAI.

Passion Is Not Enough: The Most Common Mistakes Startup Nonprofits Make - Desiree Adaway

For those debating Sachs: Remember, it’s not REAL…. it’s economics. – Lessons I Learned

RCTs and aid effectiveness: Much to be said – How Matters - A compilation post tracking the debate on RCT’s (Randomized Control Trials) in aid.

Unintended consequences – – how much harm can doing good cause? – Nonprofit Update

Giving Wisely in 2012 – tips for donating and volunteering – Pursuit of Public Health

After all, Songkran is the major holiday in Thailand, but it passes virtually unnoticed in the U.S. each year. And how many Americans know when it’s Diwali – the festival of lights?

And what is it we want Africans to know about Christmas anyway. I remember in Thailand trying to explain how Santa Claus and the baby Jesus were part of the same holiday. I was also tripped up explaining what the resurrection of Jesus had to do with an egg-laying rabbit – but that’s a different holiday.

It appears I’m not the only one fed up with the song. Here’s a humorous post to kick of your Christmas festivities ‘Yes we know it’s Christmas’ say African musicians as they finally record a response to Band Aid.

1. TOMS Shoes: Good Marketing – Bad Aid

Hands down the big winner. This post is so popular that it’s often the most hit post each day. If I had to guess I’d also say it’s the most linked-to post as well – which would explain why it continues to get so many hits over a year after it was originally written (October 25, 2010).

2. Voluntourism: What could go wrong when trying to do right?

This guest post, written by Daniela Papi, was featured in the Cracked.com article 6 Socially Conscious Actions That Only Look Like They Help. Aside from facebook, the Cracked.com article was the biggest referrer of readers to my blog in 2011.

3. A Day Without Dignity

This was a counter-campaign to TOMS Day Without Shoes where people from around the world were invited to write blog posts and share pictures discussing shoes and/or dignity. This post is still often linked to by other blogs and college newspaper articles.

4. The DOs and DON’Ts of Disaster Donations

This post is extremely popular after each major disaster. With so many disasters in 2011, this post received repeated hits.

5. Articles Related to the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

A round up of articles and newspaper stores following the devastating earthquake and tsunami. In general, posts where I collect articles on a single topic are popular and often hit while the topic is hot.

6. Why waiting to give to Japan is a good idea

The controversial idea of actually waiting to give after a disaster – especially one as visible as the one in Japan – led to lots of hits and a flurry of media interviews.

7. Collecting “Three Cups of Tea” posts

Another popular compilation post tracking the response to the scandal surrounding Greg Mortenson and his nonprofit CAI.

8. Whites in Shining Armor

This is another perennial favorite. Having coined the term, this post is often linked to by posts and articles using the phrase “Whites in Shining Armor.”

9. Tracking the World Vision / NFL Shirt Donation Controversy

Another popular compilation post. This one followed the controversy surrounding World Vision and the NFL sending 100,000 thousand football shirts from the losing Superbowl team overseas every year

10. Why are there so many natural disasters lately?

The popularity of this post could easily be used as an indicator of a recent disaster. Hits to it spike immediately after each major disaster.

As my regular readers know, I took a five month hiatus from the aid world this summer. They might have also noticed that although I’ve returned, I’m not writing as often as I used to. In fact, I’m not writing blog posts much at all anymore. This is because my hiatus helped me reevaluate my priorities. I already knew that what I was doing was not sustainable, I had to figure out what to do in the short-run so that I could continue as a donor educator in the long-run.

One of the things I’ve decided is to decrease the amount of time I spend blogging. Being an aid blogger has given me some great opportunities. I’ve learned a lot by being a part of so many great debates and I’ve enjoyed exchanging ideas with people that really care about the impact of aid and development. I’ve also appreciated the opportunity to educate the wider public through numerous newspaper and radio interviews. Most of the reporters contacted me based topics I discussed in my blog.

Unfortunately, while blogging is a great opportunity it is also amazingly time consuming with little if any financial benefits. Tobias Denkus nicely stated this in his post My development blogging 2011 review. “As exciting as the idea of new and different forms of communication is and as interesting as it is to see new bloggers emerge, it is a reminder that blogging is a product of our times: Internet-based, sophisticated, time-consuming if done well and hopeless with regard to ‘value for money’.”

Anyone that thinks blogging is quick and easy should try doing it regularly for several years. Just look at the number of people that have stepped away from blogging this year:

J. from Tales from the Hood - It’s been fun, ladies and gentlemen. But now it’s time to say ‘good-bye.’

Aid Watch - Today, after two years and four months, we end the experiment that was the Aid Watch blog.

Matt from Aid Thoughts – I’ve really, really enjoyed working on this blog. However, as you might have noticed from the lack of posting, other responsibilities are currently rearing their heads.

Sean Stannard-Stockton from Tactical Philanthropy - But now it is time for me to take a break from writing and focus on other areas of my life. Starting today, I’m taking a sabbatical of indefinite length from writing this blog.

Blogging and developing this website have been a great strain on both my time and my finances. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve considered just walking away from it all. Part of what I did this summer was debate whether this was the end of the line for me. But each time I think about leaving I receive letters from followers telling me how I’ve affected them or I’m sent news articles or links to online discussions where I can see that what I’m doing has an impact.

So what I’ve decided is to change my focus. I’m going to significantly decrease the amount of time I spend blogging and tweeting and instead work on developing guides and curriculum.

Writing guides instead of blog posts will give me more room to develop a concept and provide a broader and more nuanced understanding of that topic. The guides will also hopefully have more staying power than posts which can come and go so quickly.

The curriculum I develop will be for classes and clubs interested in teaching about smart giving. They will be designed to provide hands-on activities to help students understand concepts that can seem counter-intuitive and will put the students into the role of the person receiving the assistance. I feel that these activities could be far more powerful than reading someone repeatedly ranting on a topic of frustration.

A final benefit of the guides and curriculum is that they can sold instead of being available for free on the internet. If I’m going to remain a donor educator I’ve got to make it pay – and blogging just hasn’t done that for me.

In the new year my focus will be on fewer blog posts and more resources available on the website. My hope is that by doing this I can continue being a source of information for smart giving well into the future.

Wishing all of you happy holidays and a great new year.

Saundra

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Related post: Good Intentions’ Top Posts in 2011

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This 20 minute podcast is definitely worth a listen and I look forward to future podcasts from Tiny Spark.

“Saundra from Good Intentions wrote a phenomenal and simple guide to holiday charitable giving. It is less than $4 to purchase and I cannot praise it enough. It is worth every penny and then some.”

The Only Charitable Giving Guide You Need This Holiday - Brigid Slipka

“Thankfully, Saundra at Good Intentions Are Not Enough has published an extraordinantabulous guide to all these quandries and questions. It is available to you for less cash than a Starbucks grande gingerbread latte.”

Holiday Charitable Giving Guide - Change Gangs

“The guide does cost $3.95, and I know that may feel a little odd. After all, we can get so much free information out there today, why would I want to pay $3.95 for this guide? For me, it’s worth $3.95 to make sure that they tens or hundreds of dollars I’ll contribute in time, goods, and money this holiday season are wanted, needed, and put to good use. Plus, I’m glad to support Saundra’s hard work and experience.”

Review on Amazon
“You can always rely on Good Intentions to give you the facts you need for intelligent charitable aid.”

Buying the guide

You can purchase the holiday guide either through Amazon or Paypal.

The Amazon website makes the booklet available for kindle readers as well as provides the ability to download a kindle reader program onto a Mac or PC for free. Click here to order on Amazon

If you purchase the guide through PayPal, I will personally send you an electronic version of the booklet within 24 hours. Click below to purchase through Paypal.

About the Guide

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are when clubs, churches, businesses and families seek out charitable activities they can do together. If you are like the average American, you are probably planning on some sort of charitable giving this holiday season.

Unfortunately, our needs for a holiday charitable activity are often in conflict with the needs of the people we are trying to help. This leads to projects that may meet the needs of the donors more than they meet the needs of the poor. This holiday season make sure the help you give is the help they need.

This 13-page guide covers:

• Sub-for-Santa and Other Gift-Giving Programs
• Canned Food Donations
• Used Clothing or Toy Drives
• Charitable Gift Catalogs
• Feeding the Hungry

Praise for the Guide:

Holiday Donations- Be the Best Donor Possible - Stratosphere

“Saundra from Good Intentions wrote a phenomenal and simple guide to holiday charitable giving. It is less than $4 to purchase and I cannot praise it enough. It is worth every penny and then some.”

The Only Charitable Giving Guide You Need This Holiday - Brigid Slipka

“Thankfully, Saundra at Good Intentions Are Not Enough has published an extraordinantabulous guide to all these quandries and questions. It is available to you for less cash than a Starbucks grande gingerbread latte.”

Holiday Charitable Giving Guide - Change Gangs

“The guide does cost $3.95, and I know that may feel a little odd. After all, we can get so much free information out there today, why would I want to pay $3.95 for this guide? For me, it’s worth $3.95 to make sure that they tens or hundreds of dollars I’ll contribute in time, goods, and money this holiday season are wanted, needed, and put to good use. Plus, I’m glad to support Saundra’s hard work and experience.”

Review on Amazon
“You can always rely on Good Intentions to give you the facts you need for intelligent charitable aid.”

Buying the guide

You can purchase the holiday guide either through Amazon or Paypal.

The Amazon website makes the booklet available for kindle readers as well as provides the ability to download a kindle reader program onto a Mac or PC for free. Click here to order on Amazon

If you purchase the guide through PayPal, I will personally send you an electronic version of the booklet within 24 hours. Click below to purchase through Paypal.

These points are brought up in the paper  VOICES OF THE POOR  - Can Anyone Hear Us?. Over the course of a year the researchers interviewed people living in poverty in 60 countries. Here is one of their main findings:

“They [poor people] find that a lack of respect from officials, and daily small humiliations, are the worst things about being poor for many people.”

This lack of respect and feelings of shame come from the very same individuals and institutions charged with helping them. If people have lost everything, why do they have to sacrifice their dignity as well in order to receive assistance? A lot of it has to do with our cultural belief that “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

These thoughts came up again as I read Marc Bellemare’s post - Hilton’s Bits and Pieces of Soap: #SWEDOW?. For those of you not familiar with this kind of assistance here’s how it works. Hotels have an enormous amount of used soap bars they need to dispose of – think about how many half-used bars you leave behind after every hotel stay. For either environmental reasons or socially conscious reasons, hotels don’t want to just throw it all away. So some will donate all their used soap to a nonprofit that melts it down, sanitizes it, reforms it into new bars, and then donates it overseas.

My answer to Marc’s question is not only is this SWEDOW (Stuff We Don’t Want) but receiving it would be another one of those daily small humiliations. Think about it, would you want used soap? Under what condition would you be willing to use it? I posed this question to my boyfriend (who is not in the aid business and therefor a perfect guinea pig for these types of questions). His answer was, “Yes, if I had no other…. choice.” Exactly, why are we not providing another choice?

The lack of choice is one of the factors that can lead to a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness for people living in poverty. Soap is not expensive – even in poor areas. So if lack of soap is a real issue, then why are people not given a choice between receiving a new bar of soap or a remade bar of soap? The answer is simple, it’s because remade soap is what is in the best interest of the donors and the non-profit making the soap.

If lack of soap were really the problem Hilton was trying to solve then Hilton could easily donate money to purchase soap locally. But the lack of soap is not the problem they’re grappling with, Hilton’s problem is an abundance of used soap bars. The hotel chain could easily solve this problem by installing refillable soap dispensers in their hotel rooms and explaining to guests the reason for this change. This would immediately decrease or eliminate their used soap problem and decrease waste.

I’ve said repeatedly that our waste is not the solution to other people’s problems, our waste is our problem. It is also important to remember that dignity and choice do matter. We should not ask people that have lost everything to sacrifice their dignity as well.

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Related Posts:

A Day Without Dignity

The Day Without Dignity Video

Beggars can’t be choosers – but are they really beggars?

There is no free lunch – even in aid

Welcome to the next generation of philanthropy – Globe and Mail - Looks at how philanthropy is changing.

Evaluation Toolbox – Community Sustainability Engagement - A how-to resource for evaluating nonprofit projects.

VOICES OF THE POOR  - Can Anyone Hear Us? – World Bank – A survey of people living in poverty in 60 countries and their views on poverty.

Controversy Over Drug Values at Aid Groups: A Look at a Key Player - Chronicle of Philanthropy – Looks the the over-valuing of drugs by nonprofits to improve their administration/programs ratio.

Poverty Alleviation and Child Labor - Dartmouth paper – Looks at the impact of cash transfers in postponing child labor.

How a Community Mobilizes and Employees its Anti-Hunger Resources Is the Difference Between Adequately Addressing the Need, or Not Adequately Addressing It - Impact from UPenn – A handout to accompany a talk discussing findings from research into foodbank effectiveness.