Invisible Children spends too much on themselves

If you aren’t up to date on Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign, you are probably so blissfully unattached from social media that I can’t help but admire you. For everyone else that frequents Facebook and Twitter, I’m sure you’ve seen #KONY2012 plastered everywhere.

While I admire America’s newfound sense of frenzied activism, I must say that I’m wary of the Invisible Children organization.  According to an article from CNN, Jason Russell, one of the founders of the organization, said one-third of Invisible Children’s fundraising money was spent on the film. Another third was dedicated to film-related advocacy.

This only leaves one-third to help people.

I understand getting out the message about an issue is a large part of the battle, but should it use two-thirds of an organization’s funding?

Obviously everyone at Invisible Children can put together a heart-wrenching call to action that resounds across the world, but simply addressing an issue isn’t going to make it go away.

I can gripe about parking all day, create a video about it and urge everyone to donate to the cause. But if I just use two-thirds of that money to create a video continuing to address university issues and promote it, what am I accomplishing?

According to an article published by the nonpartisan Council on Public Relations, Invisible Children and similar groups “have manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of [Lord’s Resistance Army] abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers.” In other words, they’re only focusing on part of the issue and aren’t giving a broad enough portrayal of the crises in Uganda. Invisible Children’s website even cites the film as a “first entry point” of the issue.

A call-to-action is a starting point.  But before we all rally around an issue, shouldn’t we be more aware of all of the facts?  Why isn’t Invisible Children using one-third of their funding to create a video that gives us a more balanced and accurate view of the LRA?

I’m not arguing the acts of Joseph Kony that have been brought to light through this campaign aren’t atrocious and inhumane, or that there isn’t value in bringing attention to an issue that so few were aware of. What I am saying, however, is that concerned citizens should research different organizations before making any donations and should continue to seek balanced information on the issue.