The Pie Chart of Deception

The more charities give the public what it wants—low “overhead”—the less those charities can spend educating the public about what they actually do. And the public considers any effort by charities to educate them about what the charities actually do to be wasteful overhead to begin with. The less the sector educates the public, the lower the publi

Although targeted toward a single charity, the assertion exemplifies the illogical yet widely held view that money not spent directly on what is perceived as “the cause” is money not spent on the cause at all.

What good is it to know that 95 percent of your donation goes to the cause if you don’t know that all of the money going to the cause is being wasted?