Don’t Let “Internet Fear” Stop You from Giving to Chile

There have always been reasons for not giving to charitable causes; the urban myth of the panhandler who earned enough from it that he drove a Mercedes; the more realistic story of the charity that spends most of its funding on overheads and now, unfortunately, the exploitative stories of willful use of search terms like ‘Chile’, ‘donate’ and ‘earthquake’ to spread viruses.

But of course none of these are good reasons not to give. The Mercedes story is a myth. There are a great many websites such as Charity Navigator that provide all the insights needed to help choose a good charity.

But what about the internet security problems that have recently arisen with people searching for Haiti and Chile? How do we make sure they are a reason for not giving?

I have a few suggestions. Most importantly, don’t respond directly to links in emails soliciting donations. Instead, go to the internet and search for the website of the organization or another organization you know, or go through your company’s selected donor (for example BT works through DEC in the UK and the American Red Cross in the USA).

But to give you even more insight into the aspects of security and giving, I spoke with a colleague, Sushila Nair, from our security practice and asked for some additional hints on how to void the common pitfalls on the internet.

Kevin: How can I ensure that my personal or corporate virus software protect me against these threats?

Sushila: It is extremely important that you keep your antivirus up to date. Your antivirus should be set to look for new updates every hour or so to minimize the time you are unprotected.

To ensure that you are detecting newer threats, it is very important that you run Windows update to ensure your system has all the latest patches on it. If you don’t update Windows regularly you are leaving yourself open to many exploits that your antivirus may not have updated yet.

However it is also important to know that your antivirus won’t protect you against all malware. It is advisable that you use layered defense and install anti-spyware and a personal firewall.

Take sensible precautions by going to well known and respected web sites. Click on links with care, after all if it is not a reputable, well recognized site would you really be interested in what they have to say?

Kevin: What do I do if one of those windows comes up that looks like operating anti-virus software, warning me that my computer has a virus problem? I know I shouldn’t accept it, but I am nervous about touching anything on the screen at all – should I do a hard shutdown of my computer?

Sushila: There has been a lot of fake anti virus software out there. It claims to have detected some malware and then tried to install itself. It will then inundate you with requests for money and claims that you have been infected. What ever you do don’t let it install the software on your computer. Stop the program by using Windows task manager or if necessary restart your computer. If the software does a partial install then restore your system restore point.

Kevin: How can I protect myself from having my credit card number stolen?

Sushila: Any site where you are using your credit card number should be treated with care. Ensure that the site is using Secure Socket Layers (SSL). You can verify this by noting the padlock comes up, typically at the bottom of your screen when you are using it. Many banks are offering the capability to use Virtual Account Numbers. The idea here is that you generate a virtual credit card number which you use just for that transaction and so if anyone steals the number it is worthless.

Kevin: Does it really matter what browser I use? Is Internet Explorer less secure than Firefox?

Sushila: Malware developers like to get the biggest bang for their buck and they always try and exploit the most common platforms. There are more people using Internet Explorer and Windows so using Chrome or Firefox moves you out of the main stream and may decrease your risk

For the more internet savvy, a more technical treatment of the issues on our Secure Thinking blog

Haiti: Raising Money to Solve Systemic Problems

I have been thinking about a statement I read in a blog from Davos last week by one of BT’s thought leaders - J.P. Rangaswami. J.P. said “the key elements that kept repeating themselves [in Munich and in Davos] were these: that Haiti was an economic and social and political disaster more than anything else; Dominica, the other half of the island of Hispaniola, would have suffered far less even if the epicenter was in that half of the island.”

Governments, companies, employees and the general public have risen to the challenge of this disaster with great generosity, but are our efforts as effective as it could have been? Would it have been better had we used the same amount of money to support the development of Haiti well before the disaster, rather than to dig out of it now?

In the case of Haiti it is a moot point. The disaster has happened, the situation is what it is and we need to help. But the point applies to future events and giving.

If we collectively donated the same amount of money for infrastructure development before the disaster occurred, perhaps we could have reduced suffering even more in which case it would have been money better spent. However, I this feels like a cold and calculating way of determining approaches to giving.

There are two challenges facing corporate responsibility practitioners; raising money to solve systemic problems and spending money to solve systemic problems.

Let me put aside for now the question of how that money would have to be spent to achieve the necessary improvements. I will try and consider that in a future post.

As I have written before, it is easier to raise money to feed a homeless person than to support a drug and alcohol dependency program or a job training program for the same person. It is easier to raise money to fund a crew to pull a child from a building than to raise money to pay for more resilient concrete in the first place.

It is an emotional reaction, to which I am subject as much as the next person, that leads us to more readily respond to a person in immediate need than prevent them getting into need in the first place.

Compounding this, disaster response is somewhat measurable and time-bound. How much did companies donate in the first day, first week, first month after a disaster. This is much easier than reporting on and comparing long term activities that improve underlying infrastructure and effect change in society. And companies are drawn to deliverables that are measurable and time-bound.

Somehow we need to look for ways to motivate ourselves, our companies and our stakeholders to be increasingly sustainable in our approach to philanthropy and community investment. Maybe the disproportionately bad impact of the earthquake on the population of Haiti can be a jumping off point for that.

Of course, we will still need to provide support in disasters, but hopefully less will be needed.

Sustainable Community Investment or Helping the Needy?

I have noticed some contrasts recently in the sort of giving employees want to do with the sort of giving companies want to do. As a company we want our community investment to be strategic and sustainable. For BT, with core competencies and impact in the ICT space, that means communications and digital inclusion. But employees, myself included, want to do things that involve a hands-on approach and that tackle an immediate need.

From a sustainable community investment perspective it is best to help a homeless person learn a skill so they can get a job, but working in a soup kitchen or donating to a food pantry is a hands-on approach that is more immediately fulfilling. Likewise donating money to help cure people with heart disease seems like a more charitable cause than donating your money towards a healthy living education program – although the latter might be better value. On a personal level most of us want to do things that meet the immediate requirements of a needy person.

In addition, personally, I want to do things that get me out of my normal office environment and working in different capacity. I am sure that why so many people like to work in soup kitchens.

Our emotional drivers as individuals incline us towards programs that help sustain the needy rather than truly sustainable programs that tackle the underlying issue.

Companies can and do address these differences by distinguishing between the drivers and appropriate funding to put behind employee engagement programs versus the drivers and appropriate funding to put behind corporate giving.

But the real trick is to find programs at the intersection of both employee drivers and strategic and sustainable community involvement. I am still working on it and would be interested to hear any you have come across in your sectors.