Tracking Charity

It’s hard to see the devastation in the Philippines without wanting to do something to help. Reporter Amy Costello covers the business of doing good and has this advice for helping.

TOMS Shoes was one of the first to pioneer the “guilt-free” consumption model. When you buy a pair of TOMS shoes, the California-based company will give a pair to a child in need. Aid watchers criticized this “band-aid” effort to fight poverty. Now TOMS is changing its style a bit.

The US leads the world in the number of children adopted from abroad. Critics say this unending demand for infants from poor nations – together with the huge sums American families are willing to pay – transformed an altruistic act into an industry plagued by corruption, kidnapping, and fraud.

As part of The World’s investigative project Tracking Charity, we recently held an online chat with experts in the realm of giving. Our question: How do you know a good charity when you see it?

When people find out that I reported from Africa for many years and am now producing a series called Tracking Charity, they frequently ask me this: “Which charities do you think are doing really good work on the ground overseas?”