Like the rest of the known universe, I sat and watched the Kony 2012 video a couple days ago. Powerful. It’s tempting to hop on a plane and try to hunt the guy down personally, isn’t it?

Within hours, like a pack of dogs on a 3 legged cat, the Internet did it’s thing. The world picked apart every microsecond of the video and every penny of Invisible Children’s financial statement…and that’s a good thing. Accountability is good. Worth noting: if you’ve ever had a questionable photo of yourself show up on the Internet, don’t ever make a viral video. People will find said photo and attempt to destroy your life.

Anyhow…allow me to step upward onto this here box of soap.

The problem with this rabid social media dissection of an idea is that there are no perfect ideas. There are no perfect plans. There are no perfect people. (Well, I believe there was one…and we killed him.) Think of the single greatest plan that you’ve ever had. Now, imagine posting the details of that plan on a blog for 50 million people to analyze, scrutinize, and provide feedback. Your grand idea wouldn’t look so grand anymore. It’d be disheartening. Don’t allow a lack of perfection distract you from becoming passionate about a cause. Action trumps worry. Moving, doing, and hustling usually trumps watching, wishing, and waiting.

>>>exits soapbox>>>

As for my 2 cents on the Invisible Children. Their response to all the criticism was good (see it here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html)

Being the nerd I am, before posting the video on facebook (and forever linking myself to said video), I did my own research. Sure, there are some red flags. The undisputed fact remains: Kony needs to be found. If he did this stuff to even one child, that is all the information I needed. Had it not been for this video, I would have likely never heard of him. 

In case you’re curious what I looked at…

Here are 4 prominent charities as well as 4 charities somewhat similar to Invisible Children (I got these 4 names here.) I broke down their expenditures (via most recent publicly available 990.) I was curious what percentage of the revenue of each organization went to management and fundraising as opposed to furthering their respective causes. Here’s the data that I took from their 990s (links below).

United Way: http://unway.3cdn.net/8439794c5b10276c0b_8lm6bdyqo.pdf

Susan G. Komen: http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content/AboutUs/Financial/KOMEN%20PARENT%20PDC%20wout%20PW.pdf

Goodwill Industries: http://www.goodwill.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Goodwill-Industries-International-2010-990.pdf

Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/corppubs/ARC_990_2010.pdf

AMREF USA: http://www.amrefusa.org/silo/files/amref-2010-irs-form-990.pdf

Africare: http://www.africare.org/documents/AfricareForm990FY2010.pdf

Children of the Nations: http://www.cotni.org/uploads/page_assets/0000/4912/2010_Form_990_no_Schedule_B_amended_Nov_2011.pdf

Water.org: http://static.water.org/pdfs/2011_irs_990.pdf

Invisible Children: http://c2052482.r82.cf0.rackcdn.com/images/736/original/FY11-990%20Tax%20return.pdf?1320205002

Bottom line: assuming Invisible Children’s numbers are accurate (they should really put together an external audit committee to bump up their Charity Navigator Accountability and Transparency score), their expenditures aren’t substantially off the mark. The founders’ salaries (as a percentage of revenues) aren’t really all that high either (you can see this info on the 990 forms.)

So, yes, I support the movement. Bring this guy to justice. What an awesome way to utilize the power of social media. Will I “cover the night?”  More than likely. April 20, 2012 is about 50 internet-viral-video years from now. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Actually I’m really hoping that, somewhere out there, there’s a real life guy like Liam Neeson’s character from Taken who watches this video then utilizes his “very particular set of skills.”

Stop Kony. http://www.kony2012.com. Or, if you’re uncomfortable with Invisible Children, I just ask that you direct your passion to another organization. Don’t just sit idle and grumpy. Move. Act. Give. Do.