Why is a cash donation better than donating supplies?

One of the questions I get most often when people learn about the Kathy & Mike McNulty Academy is: can I donate school supplies to help out? There are many reasons why people prefer to donate materials rather than money. Things like school supplies – pencils, notebooks, backpacks – are tangible items that we can visualize being used in the classroom. Supplies cannot be siphoned away to cover overhead: you can’t take 50% or 80% of a pencil to pay bank fees or website maintenance! Plus, 100% of ALL donations to FoKC go directly to Kenya. And, donating money can feel crass, as if you don’t care enough about the problem to personally engage with the solutions.

In fact, donating money rather than supplies reflects a much deeper engagement with the situation and with the necessary solutions. Here’s why:

Cost of transport: Although large corporations have enough volume to cheaply ship goods around the world, supplies donated in the U.S. for KMMA must either be hand-carried to Kenya, at the cost of excess baggage fees and Kenyan import taxes, or shipped as rather expensive parcels. Worse, mail and freight delivery in rural Kenya is not always secure and shipped packages may never reach the students for whom they are intended.

The almighty dollar: For many items, prices are so much cheaper in Kenya and the foreign exchange rate is so favorable to U.S. currency that many, many more supplies can be purchased in Kenya than could be bought with the same money in America. The cost of notebooks for one classroom, bought in the U.S., could supply the entire school if bought in Kenya!

Undermining local businesses: A subtle but real problem with importing foreign supplies is that it undermines local Kenyan industry. This has been well documented with mass shipments of donated clothing to developing nations, where local textile and clothing businesses have virtually gone extinct. Buying goods locally in Kenya not only improves KMMA but it helps the community economy by supporting businesses and jobs.

We are grateful to the generous and kind-hearted people and organizations who have supported KMMA through donated goods, and we will always accommodate such gifts when we are able. But, when considering how your participation can have the greatest benefit to Rusinga’s impoverished communities, remember that the simplest way to donate is also the most effective, the most impactful.