Benjamin Todd

No matter which career you choose, anyone can make a difference by donating to charity, engaging in advocacy, or volunteering.

Unfortunately, many attempts to do good in this way are ineffective, and some actually cause harm.

Take sponsored skydiving.

Every year, thousands of people collect donations for good causes and throw themselves out of planes to draw attention to whatever charity they've chosen to support.

This sounds like a win-win.

The fundraiser gets an exhilarating once-in-a-lifetime experience while raising money for a worthy cause.

What could be the harm in that?

Quite a bit, actually.

According to a study of two popular parachuting centres, over a five-year period, 1991 to 1995, approximately 1,500 people went skydiving for charity and collectively raised more than £120,000.

That sounds pretty impressive, until you consider a few caveats.

First, the cost of the diving expeditions came out of the donations.

So of the £120,000 raised, only £45,000 went to charity.

Second, because most of the skydivers were first-time jumpers, they suffered a combined total of 163 injuries, resulting in an average hospital stay of nine days.

In order to treat these injuries, the UK's National Health Service spent around £610,000.

This means that for every £1 raised for the charities, the health service spent roughly £13.

So the net effect was to reduce resources for health services.

Ironically, many of the charities supported focused on health-related matters.

What about volunteering?

One problem is that volunteers need to be managed.

If untrained volunteers use the time of trained managers, it's easy for them to cost the organisation more than the value they add.