Donate now! Sponsor us! Give us your money for senseless purposes! These quotes are more or less the same thing when promoted through online media sites such as Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign.

KONY 2012 is a fundraiser to capture a man named Joseph Kony, who had kidnapped children for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)  movement to murder civilians. Around $16 million dollars has been spent on trying to find this man, and he still hasn’t been found, two years later. Giving money to something should have some kind of result, in this case, the arrest of Kony. There really isn’t a point of giving to something that isn’t insured.

The first thing you read on the Invisible Children’s website is a tag that reads “Donate.” This tag continues to scroll all the way down the page, essentially begging for money. But where does any of  this money end up?

Charity navigator.org, an index and rating website for national organizations, gave the financial status of the website at a two out of four stars.

According to the KONY 2012 “Invisible Children” website, its money is put toward mobilization, recovery, general administrative, protection, media and fundraising. Fundraising took 32.5 percent of the 16 million, which adds up to be $5.2 million fundraising put straight back into fundraising more money.

The KONY model shows that not all fundraisers make real progress toward a cause, but do spend money that people give toward them. Online fundraisers do not have to give any proof of what they spend that their supporters donated.  Giving to local fundraisers shows more progress, where you can see changes in your own community.