Tiny Spark

MacArthur “genius” award winner Corinne Dufka was a photojournalist for Reuters, covering armed conflicts in 17 nations. But inside a hotel room in Rwanda, she had an “epiphany” that compelled her to leave photojournalism at the height of her career. Dufka discusses what drives her to champion the rights of the marginalized, whether inside a psych ward in San Francisco, at a rain-soaked refugee crossing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or in a Bosnian battlefield, where Dufka herself was severely injured by a landmine. Dufka is now a researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Foreign aid reached its highest point in 2014 but less has been going to the poorest nations. Development economist Owen Barder gives reasons for this trend and explains why he won’t sit on panels that exclude women.

It turns out that one of America's fiercest aid critics is just a soft-spoken guy from Ohio. "A lot of people start characterizing your work who really haven’t read you very closely, or even at all. And they paint you as more extreme than you really are. And I think that has happened to me," Bill Easterly tells us. (Photo Credit: Jerry Bauer)

Promo: Economist Bill Easterly talks about the challenges of doing good in repressive regimes.

Until recently, Ken Berger led the world’s largest charity evaluator. He found that money wasn't necessarily flowing to the best charities. “I don’t see a correlation between where the dollars are going and impact. The brand that is most well known wins." (Photo Credit: Brian Sims, Flickr)

Former CEO of nation's largest charity evaluator says few nonprofits know if they're having impact.

U.S. laws allow billions of dollars in charitable assets to sit in bank accounts and private foundations. Ray Madoff says it’s time to change those laws so that charitiable dollars are put to work tackling society's most pressing problems.

Next time on Tiny Spark: The case for releasing billions of dollars in charitable assets now sitting in banks and private foundations.

In the final segment of Tiny Spark's Guide to Good Giving, Columbia University professor Doug White says before giving to charity, donors should ask key questions of certain people there.

How do you vet solicitors calling on behalf of big name charities? Should we rate charities based on overhead costs? Why is it important to give year-round and not just this holiday? In Part Two of Tiny Spark's Guide to Good Giving, we hear from The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s editor Stacy Palmer.

We explore effective altruism, which urges donors to stretch their charitable dollars as far as possible by giving to the world's extreme poor. But aren't families living in our local homeless shelters equally deserving? We dive into the local versus global debate with Charlie Bresler of the nonprofit The Life You Can Save, which guides donors on fighting extreme poverty.

Think people in developing nations are worse off than ever? Steven Radelet says it isn't so. “The biggest misperception is that people are stuck in poverty. That might have been true up until 25 years ago, but the situation has dramatically changed since then.” Radlet's new book details the promising news in the fight to end extreme poverty across the globe.

Would you consider giving most of your money to charity? Donate your kidney to a stranger? New Yorker staff writer Larissa MacFarquhar talks extreme altruists.

Quick update to let you know what we're up to.

Anthropologist Amy Brown gives a behind-the-scenes look at the sometimes troubling ways a NYC public school markets its low-income students of color to donors.

Author and anthropologist Amy Brown goes inside a NYC public school and emerges with tough questions about marketing, race and philanthropy.

A Yale and Harvard-trained computer scientist worked for Microsoft in India for several years, trying to see how tech could improve the lives of the world's poor. His conclusion? Computers and smart phones will never solve the world’s problems. This former tech evangelist offers some old school ideas for helping us have greater impact.

American communities are still reeling and healing from recent gun violence, including the June mass shooting at a church in Charleston, S.C., and the gang violence that killed 10 people over July 4th weekend in Chicago. But our guests say there is something we can do about gun violence. To get there, we have to stop looking at the problem through a victim/perpetrator lens and begin tackling it at its root, like an infectious disease.

Ugandan-born writer and entrepreneur TMS Ruge challenges the current model of aid intervention. “Just because you're doing something for the poor doesn't mean you're doing it right.”

We hear your advice on a moral dilemma involving aid work, plus your reactions to John Paulson's $400M gift to Harvard.