Freshman Annu Subramanian, a Hatchet columnist, discusses why GW students are positioned to be particularly effective when it comes to philanthropy.

Every charity prides itself on accomplishments, innovations and sweeping successes. Yet poverty, education and hunger statistics remain startling. In this country alone, the number of nonprofits exceed 1.2 million, and globally that number clocks in at around 5 million. Like some metaphysical puzzle that contains the seeds of its own solution, the reasons for this lie largely in the nature of creating and running nonprofits. Whether it is the Ivy City part in Northeast D.C. – long an area of industrial decay and blighted blocks – or Ibadan, Nigeria, in the hub of the global AIDS epidemic, nonprofits are often ineffective due to the application of outdated aid methods or insufficient funds.