A lot of these organisations will take money both from voluntary donations as well as from volunteer workers.
There are official listings in the UK - not sure about the US - that detail the total income of the agency alongside the percentage of that income that is spent on administration. The lower the percentage, the more it is likely to be a bona fide organisation AND efficient at its work. I always check on this before other donating to a voluntary outfit, or volunteering to work on its behalf.
A personal issue for me - of course it doesn't affect everyone the same way - is whether the agency is non-affiliated. There are plenty of aid agencies that have a separate, usually religious agenda. For some of these organisations it could be said that this religious agenda is the overriding one.
JC - As a Chiang Mai-based expat, do you know an American called Steve, about 65, all his hair, tall, long-term resident, owns a guest house, involved with an orphanage (can't remember which one)?
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