Global Interaction Inc: impact review
Care: At least some of the information about this charity is no longer current. Use the ‘Search charity names’ box to see if there is a later review. If the latest review has a message like this, you are welcome to make your case for an updated review via email to ted@businessbythebook.com.au.
This is a review for donors of the charity Global Interaction Inc (Global Interaction). It uses the information they have put on the charity regulator’s website (the ACNC Register) and the information on their own website. (We also sent them a draft of this review – see their response below.)
The ACNC has previously – the Fact Sheet is no longer on the site – said that ‘If you are donating to a charity, you may wish to make sure that your donation is creating the greatest impact possible.’[1] They don’t currently explain ‘impact’ on their website, but this is how they explained it in the same publication:
Every charity has a mission that is associated with producing a public benefit. As this mission is pursued, the changes produced in individuals and their communities can be referred to as the charity’s ‘impact.’ [2]
If you are a Christian, then the Bible supports this idea of producing ‘the greatest impact possible’. God requires us to be a good steward of the resources He has provided us (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:2)[3]. To do this, we need to have discernment (e.g., Proverbs 1:5[4]).
Therefore, unless we are giving just to make ourselves feel better, we should have an interest in seeing that the money we are giving is likely to be used not only properly but also with ‘the greatest impact possible’.
Everything Global Interaction is doing may be being done ‘properly’[5], but unless the money is producing the change in people that the charity intends (i.e., an impact[6]), the money would be better used elsewhere. And the same applies if the impact is less than is being achieved by another charity.
Global Interaction spent $8.93 million last year. It was spent on some combination of these activities[7]. The employees, 89 of them, cost them $2.84 million. What is the impact they wanted from this effort? What impact did they achieve?
Impact
There is nothing about their impact on the website. But at least their mission tells us what changes in people and communities they want:
Empowering communities to develop their own distinctive ways of following Jesus’.
We could find no report of how this was going. (We also searched on ‘results’ and ‘outcomes’).
There may be something in their ‘Annual Guide’, but this is only sent after you have registered with them:
Global Interaction’s response
We sent them a draft of this review. As usual, they did not respond. Update: they replied on 4 January, saying that they would ‘respond as soon as possible’. They were invited to submit a comment.
- There is no reason to expect that this is not still their view. ↑
- Again, there is no reason to expect that this is not their current view. ↑
- And holds us accountable for their use (Luke 16:1-9). ↑
- See also Proverbs 14:15 and Prov 19:2. ↑
- The behaviour of its people, its use of money, and how it goes about its business. See here for our last review that covers much of this area. ↑
- The ACNC has previously – the Fact Sheet is no longer on the site – explained impact this way:“Every charity has a mission that is associated with producing a public benefit. As this mission is pursued, the changes produced in individuals and their communities can be referred to as the charity’s ‘impact.’ If you are donating to a charity, you may wish to make sure that your donation is creating the greatest impact possible.’There is no reason why this wouldn’t still be their view. ↑
- This is the only information they give in the Financial Report 2019 for how their resources were consumed:
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