Guide to Effective Compassion

Foreword

If you've ever wondered where your surplus time and money could be invested to yield the greatest dividend, you are certainly not alone. While most would agree that not all charities are equally effective, how can their worthiness be assessed?

For the past three years, the Acton Institute has sought to locate and identify effective charities nationwide. Since 1995, the year of its inception, our Samaritan Awards program has surfaced literally hundreds of private welfare initiatives that provide community-based assistance for the social, spiritual, and physical needs of individuals. Based upon seven principles of effective compassion developed by Dr. Marvin Olasky in the introduction to this guide, over 1,500 organizations have been evaluated for their ability to quickly, efficiently, and humanely service the needs of the distressed.

The Acton Institute uses several criteria for determining a charity's effectiveness. One such criteria has to do with managerial success. Is the program cost-efficient and strictly reliant on private sources of funding? Can its programs and services be replicated in other cities? Another focuses on the charity's educational aspect. Is there a mentoring component that builds character in the recipient? Does the program teach the recipient to become independent and self-sufficient? Does the charity require the recipient to work or learn as a condition for receiving assistance? We also stress the emotional or spiritual success of a charity by evaluating whether it promotes cohesion between volunteers and recipients? Does it have a vibrant spiritual component, instilling in the recipients a sense of worth and self-esteem?

The 1998 Guide to Effective Compassion lists over one hundred and fifty organizations that may be worthy of your consideration. Even though it is difficult to separate one's personal judgment from objective analysis, the reader should know that the organizations appearing in this guide have undergone at least five independent evaluations. The goal of this process is to ensure that the Samaritan Awards program continues to satisfy its objective of spotlighting America's most effective charities and how they have achieved success.