'Can' the Canned Food Drive

Experts from the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania say "can" the canned-food drive. For the same amount of money spent on purchasing cans for a food drive, donors can feed 20 times more families by providing cash, not cans.

While cans from food drives will be distributed to needy families, it still leaves millions hungry. For every $10 spent that way, only $10 worth of food goes into the charity food distribution system.

Up to half of that food may not get used, not because the receiving family wasn't needy but because the food is either something they can't use or don't know how to use. A $10 gift may end up providing only $5 worth of actual hunger relief.

Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, explains that, if a donor gave money instead of food to a charity serving the hungry, that monetary donation would have a much greater impact.

The Center provides independent analysis and decision-making tools for ensuring that philanthropic dollars have the greatest possible impact. It was established by alumni of Penn's Wharton School and is housed at the School of Social Policy & Practice.