5 ms·

What percentage of its budget does Amnesty International put into advertising, and is it unusually high for charities? I mean, I'm all for effective altruism,

What percentage of its budget does Amnesty International put into advertising, and is it unusually high for charities? I mean, I'm all for effective altruism, for giving money to charities the charities that help the most people with it with the lowest overhead, and for doing your research before deciding who you donate to (I recommend GiveWell as a starting point); but "hiring PR agents to solicit donations" is hardly unique to Amnesty.

amtamt 3y ago
From https://www.amnesty.org/en/2021-global-financial-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/2021-global-financial-report/ > 2021 was a record-breaking year with a total fundraising income of €357m. And > The largest proportion of the movement’s programme expenditure €26.4m (35%) was spent towards Goal One. And > 45% of total income spent on Human rights research, advocacy, campaigning, raising awareness and education So ~20% (75m of 357m) was actually spent on real work, assuming everything reached end beneficiaries. Interesting way of showing 45% of expenditure clubbing multiple heads, while showing 2% expenditure on "Maintaining our democratic system of governance".
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  Yikes, only 20% going to actual end beneficiaries is pretty low.
- PoignardAzur 3y ago
  I'm not sure your math holds up, though. Among other things, it sounds like their income was higher than their expenditures, eg that they had some money left at the end of the year; so your "75m of 375m" ratio isn't quite right. Maybe I missed something.
  - amtamt 3y ago
    ~ for approximately. Idea was not to audit records but provide an approximation of how much is spent on the stated objectives. And even 20% is probably very high, because I would guess people working on those would be paid some salary/ honorarium, and that also would be included in this expense.

5 ms·

What percentage of its budget does Amnesty International put into advertising, and is it unusually high for charities? I mean, I'm all for effective altruism,

by PoignardAzur 3y ago

amtamt 3y ago
From https://www.amnesty.org/en/2021-global-financial-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/2021-global-financial-report/ > 2021 was a record-breaking year with a total fundraising income of €357m. And > The largest proportion of the movement’s programme expenditure €26.4m (35%) was spent towards Goal One. And > 45% of total income spent on Human rights research, advocacy, campaigning, raising awareness and education So ~20% (75m of 357m) was actually spent on real work, assuming everything reached end beneficiaries. Interesting way of showing 45% of expenditure clubbing multiple heads, while showing 2% expenditure on "Maintaining our democratic system of governance".
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  Yikes, only 20% going to actual end beneficiaries is pretty low.
- PoignardAzur 3y ago
  I'm not sure your math holds up, though. Among other things, it sounds like their income was higher than their expenditures, eg that they had some money left at the end of the year; so your "75m of 375m" ratio isn't quite right. Maybe I missed something.
  - amtamt 3y ago
    ~ for approximately. Idea was not to audit records but provide an approximation of how much is spent on the stated objectives. And even 20% is probably very high, because I would guess people working on those would be paid some salary/ honorarium, and that also would be included in this expense.