Whether and Where to Give

Theron Pummer (Oxford University, University of St. Andrews)

Many believe that it is often permissible not to give to charity, even when giving would be permissible and better from an impartial perspective.  I will assume this is true – that one often has permission whether to give.  Many also believe that it is permissible to give to any particular charity of one’s choosing (within deontological constraints), and that one’s having this permission where to give is entailed by one’s having permission whether to give to charity.  But just how often does one have permission where to give?  And might one sometimes have permission whether to give without having permission where to give?  I approach these questions by exploring some of the most defensible bases of permission whether to give to charity, including:  one’s interests, desires, projects, commitments, and connections to those near and dear.  I argue that even if these bases generated powerful permissions whether to give to charity, a general inference from “permission whether to give” to “permission where to give” would be dubious.  These bases of permission whether to give may sometimes also generate reasons or permissions concerning where to give, but usually such reasons or permissions are not weighty relative to the large amounts of good at stake in choices concerning where to give.  I conclude that it is usually wrong to give to a charity that does substantially less good than other charities one could have given to instead, even when it is not wrong not to give to charity at all.