Why I use the term “do-gooder” (and why I count myself as one)
By: Jennifer Lentfer
Tags: Global Development, Nonprofit, Humanitarian, Social Good, Humility

Do-gooder.

Twice over the last few months, incensed humanitarians have reached out to tell me how wrong I am for referring to people in this way, as if it were demeaning or disparaging, or that it must be with resentment. Both times, bristled, I have tried to figure out why “do-gooder” pisses people off so much that they would take the time and effort to try to correct me. Of course people resist labels. Perhaps they don’t want to be grouped with amateurs who don’t have the professional credibility they do. Perhaps they assume “do-gooder” is a criticism.

So let me share below what goes through my head in the aftermath of such “outreach,” and share what a really mean when I say do-gooder.

The social good sector is broad and varied, but we are united in our purpose.

Maybe you identify as an aid worker, a social entrepreneur, a philanthropist, an activist. Maybe you work for a funder, an aid agency, a grassroots group, an NGO, a church, an advocacy organization, a crowdfund, a corporate social responsibility team, a think tank, an impact investment fund. Maybe you work for nonprofit, government, or in the private sector. Maybe you are a volunteer.

Regardless I do believe there’s something that unites those who care about global development: we want to do good. We want to see people thrive. We want to address suffering, end poverty — even if we fundamentally disagree on how this will happen. We want to make an impact.

Do-gooder is the best catch-all term I can find for everyone engaged in “the work” of helping others, be it professional or amateur. Be it finance, or people, or stuff, or ideas, we are all engaged in moving resources around to support others. There may not be much to unite us as group of people, so let it be what’s below our actions: we all want to do good.

Doing good is universal.

No matter your position or station in life, or what the resources you have to offer, try to find someone who does not believe they are engaged in the act of “helping” at least one another person. They are few. As a marker of good character, helpfulness is celebrated in all cultures, though in different ways. In my culture (white, Christian, U.S.), do-gooders are almost universally venerated in mainstream media — gaining approval, affection, and favor.

And perhaps that’s why professional do-gooders want to distinguish themselves from the naive or self-absorbed do-gooders that get book deals. And yet…when I listen to their profoundly self-protective stories full of aid sector cynicism, you can tell that even the most grizzly cowboys once started out in this thinking they might do some good.

Maybe us do-gooders aren’t so different after all.

Doing good is also rife with pitfalls.

Amateur or professional, there’s way too much swept under the rug in the shadow of “doing good.”

Thus, all do-gooders need feedback.

Read full speech here: www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm

Being honest about one’s blind spots and weaknesses is tough medicine to administer to oneself, and goodness knows that accountability in the social good sector is still most often looked for in the wrong places. That’s why it’s so important that do-gooders consciously surround themselves with people who offer differing perspectives, with vastly different lived experiences and worldviews. The support and challenge offered by our trusted advisors and friendly adversaries is what can help individuals, team, organizations, systems create and develop the internal knowledge we need to change the world “out there”.

I don’t presume to know what’s beneath people who feel criticized by the term “do-gooder.” What I do know is that at the end of the day — no matter what labels are assigned to us — given the limitations of working within nonprofit organizations, we often have to be accountable to ourselves first.

Doing good requires a continual source of humility and courage.

Listen, I don’t know what it is to be trying to deliver health care in a field hospital during a conflict, or to try to assess the aftermath of an earthquake and decide how much food aid will be needed in the next month. Nor do I know what it’s like to have people from my community knocking on my door for help and working day and night to try to help fulfill those needs. Nor do I know what it’s like to have US$50 million to spend and no clue how to invest it.

I do know what it’s like to try to sit with pain and cognitive dissonance and questions that seem unanswerable in my work. And that is my wish for all do-gooders, despite our differences: that we surround ourselves with kind and smart and generous people who help us make meaning of our efforts, who push us to reflect and grow, and get beyond ourselves with more honesty and courage. No matter how many years we have under our belt, I hope we also don’t ever forget why we first “signed up” for this work: We all just wanted to do good.

I’ve been referring to myself as a do-gooder for a long time now.

My tongue-in-cheek Twitter handle since 2010 has been @intldogooder. (That’s an abbreviated international-do-gooder.) And this is how I introduced my blog in its first post that same year:

This blog will raise more questions than answers, but it hopes to explore the skills and knowledge needed by all international “do-gooders” (professional and amateur alike) to truly raise the level of human dignity within foreign assistance and put real resources behind local means of overcoming obstacles.

Ten years later, I still hope this blog is raising more questions than answers. I’ve used the term “do gooder” without malice for many years, but I want to always be open to change, when it matters. What do you think? Should I abandon the term “do-gooder”? Or just keep using it, knowing it occupies a special place in my heart for every human who dares/dared believe the world can be better? Because this is what do-gooder has always meant to me.

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