Alive and Kicking's blog

There has been a spike in criticism of the ‘buy one, give one’ (BOGO) model that a number of Western NGOs use to encourage charitable giving. This has been prompted by an article from R Todd Johnson, in which he argues that philanthropy is killing Africa and that ‘BOGO should be no-go’. Alive & Kicking offers a BOGO option in our online shop, and we agree with the majority of Todd’s argument, but this need not be contradictory. This piece outlines the problems with traditional BOGO models, and explains how Alive & Kicking does it differently.

The 2010 World Cup was widely hailed as Africa's World Cup, and rightly so. After all, this is the continent's first ever hosting of the event, and many optimitistically looked forward to the benefits, both economic and social, the event would bring to Africa. Sadly, however, a great chance was missed when the decision was made to use the Jabulani ball rather than a ball made in Africa.