I have read that John Stuart Mill thought that individual benevolence was better than organized voluntary charity, which was better that state aid, precisely because of the difference in how readily they could be fitted to individual needs and capabilities.
A sensible approach. With larger organizations, we often end up with a pendulum effect, where strict rules lead to deserving people getting stuck on one or another hoop they need to jump through, so the rules are relaxed to avoid false negatives, which makes it easier for the unscrupulous to game the system, causing a scandal that results in the tightening of the rules. Lather, rinse, repeat, over and over.
Especially when a small organization is helping the needy within its own community, it's easier to get to know them as individuals and understand who needs a good swift kick and who has a genuine problem that isn't going to get better, especially the tricky neurological ones that can be hard to detect in a formal assessment.
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Especially when a small organization is helping the needy within its own community, it's easier to get to know them as individuals and understand who needs a good swift kick and who has a genuine problem that isn't going to get better, especially the tricky neurological ones that can be hard to detect in a formal assessment.
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