We need to work together and gather information to develop effective aid

There is no big brother to organize development and make sure, that aid is aimed at those who need the most. If we want to save the last bits of our environment and try to develop, in a more sustainable manner, it is up to us individuals to gather our shared knowledge and support the organizations, who are best at their work. Who is best is up to each individual to determine, as this based on personal preferences. Aid-e just want to give more easily accessible tools, which can be used to find organizations living up to your presonal requirements.

There is too much needless fumbling in the dark, which this sector cannot afford, as it relies on the trust of regular citizens. To make any headway, we need information to find out what types of development practices works best. We need information, that experts can analyze, and we need oversight, to know where to act.

Improved oversight and insight, of the available aid, will also help prevent misuse. Hopefully, that will increase the credibility, which most NGOs depend on. People are suffering and we can help them, so please stop choosing to forget or distance yourself, no matter how harsh the reality may be. Aid evaluator gives you a means to take the right action, on the topic or area that you care about. If you can just help find some of the lacking information, from your computer, phonebook, friends, whatever...it will be a big help. For Aid Evaluator to work; people from everywhere must contribute with the relevant knowledge they have access to. Work is always in Progress - Help add info by e-mailing: info@aidevaluator.com

In 2016 the aim will be to start up slowly. Trying to get people to understand the concept and help add information. Short term; the aim is to add information and make it easier for people to find the locally available help. Long term, there is no end to the aims but here are a few of them for various target groups:

1. Help People in Need; find Assistance

• Help people find the available assistance in their local area.
• Provide relevant information about the individual organizations, to those in need of assistance.
• Improve people's sense of community and look at what is lacking and what works,locally as well as globally.
• Allow user to find the best aid available and, thus, promote the programs that work.

2. Help Individual Donors; give based on personal criteria

• Provide relevant information about individual organizations, to those seeking to help.
• Promote transparency and, thus, increase the trust necessary for continued public support.
• Allow user to find the best aid available and, thus, promote the programs that work.

3. Help Organizations; show what they do

• Help small NGOs get visibility, and help create oversight of what exactly the big organizations do.
• Allow evaluation, which looks at more than simply administration costs.
• Promote transparency and, thus, increase the trust necessary for continued public support.
• Reduce evaluation costs; by making it easier for those involved to comment on the aid initiatives, (perhaps eventually).

4. Help Researchers; make more comprehensive and improved research

• Give researchers better data, with which to make solutions based on facts instead of guesses.
• Allow both the recipient, the donor and the aid-organization a place to take note of each other standpoints and perhaps gain a better understanding of the issues they are dealing with.
• Improve aid patterns and make them more transparent, comprehensible and efficient!

 

Background Story about the Founder

Having traveled around much and lived different places. I feel the world is my home and I am concerned with development. Being from relatively rich Denmark, I understand that people should earn their wage and be entitled to spend it, as they please, however I don't think people get what they deserve. There is extreme injustice in our world, which is not being recognized, and aid organizations seem to be the only ones trying to help. As a compromise, I'd say people need not concern themselves with others, if they are doing their best to help. Unfortunately, most people only give a little something to a random charity, probably one near them with enough funds to advertise. Yet, their options are limited - there is no place where one can compare organizations, and choose based on personal criteria and interests. My hope is that this site could become such a place; to make informed decisions.

My name is Britt Rasmussen and I first got the idea for the Aid Evaluator in 2005, when Wikipedia showed that it was possible for individuals to build something together. I tried to find partners but failing in that I started trying to make the website, while taking my Master Degree in 'Development and International Relations. In 2007 experience from the EU and UN gave me further courage; that I was on the right path, and I began actively pursuing funding opportunities in 2008. This also failed, so to cater to Danish funds I made a sister site, which would only focus on Denmark. This was called The Charity Review. In 2009 I established it as an association, and took in members to help. For many years I kept up general assemblies, and kept trying to apply for funds, while simultaniously building on the site myself. There were also many individual volunteers working on different pages but my system, where I had to enter all the information people provided did not really work out. In 2013 Jim Cory came on board and for the last many years he has helped me build a Drupal site, where people can enter information themselves. We are just finishing up the layout and are getting ready to publish in April 2016. There are many more features we would like to add, and we will continue to do so, but we publish now in order to get more people helping in adding information and making the data gathering part of the project work. I hope to find adminis for each country, district, city, town, topic and for every type of, preferably free, offer of assistance to local people.

 

Politics

This site is not about politics but about aid. There are different perspectives on human rights, animal rights etc. We hope to be able to remain impartial and merely list the different rights agencies, and perhaps outline their challenges on their local topic pages. We would like to be able to show what takes place, without taking sides, as individuals should be able to make up their own mind, based on facts. Yet, facts and people are not impartial, so there are no promises, but we aim to be impartial.

 

About the Aid-E

As I hope all organizations will make a page in here; to explain their set up and what they do in practice; Aid-E also has a page like this. Check it out here.

 

Corruption in Organizations

Transparant organizations are rewarded, with good ratings, when they provide relevant information. For now, we will not try to root out corrupt organizations, rather we will reward the organizations who provide transparent information and relevant updates with good ratings and hope that people can use this as a guide.

 

Disclaimer

As everybody is supposed to be able to add info, and even organizations are allowed to give their own information about themselves; we cannot be held responsible for something false. We will give better and more relevant information, but you must yourself determine, if you trust whoever is giving the information. Being listed here is not a stamp of approval, yet we would encourage you to write to us, if you notice any inaccuarate information.

 

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