Maddie Doyle and Ally Bowes, representing Radhoc Youth Leadership, hosted a presentation on February 6th titled, “The Pitfalls of Voluntourism and Judging Charities”. It wasn’t a bashing of charitable work like the title might suggest, but more of a demonstration of how someone can find a charity or non-profit organization they feel best suits the cause they want to support. The presentation featured the Canada Revenue website (https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/charities-listings.html), and demonstrated how to search for charities and non-profit organizations that operate in Canada. The most intriguing part of this was when the expenses for any given charity were shown, presenting how much each charity might spend on staff and administration, charitable causes, operating expenses, etc.
Afterwards, the audience was shown the different kinds of charities, often classified by where they operate and what makes up the most of their expenses. After which, an interactive activity provided a better understanding by letting each audience member create their own charity organization, based on one of the types given.
